Magnetics Business & Technology - March/April 2023 - 6

FEATURE ARTICLE
HyProMag H2-Enabled Magnet Recycling Ventures Coming Onstream in UK and Germany
Professor Rex Harris. It was first tested in the laboratory using an
old washing machine drum to extract the rare earth alloys from
products such as hard disk drives, speakers and electric motors
and separate it from other bits of plastic and metal surrounding
the magnet.
The HPMS process has been exclusively licensed to HyProMag,
which will be one of the facility's primary industrial users,
helping to operate the plant and establish the supply chain. The
extracted NdFeB powder is in the form of an alloy which can be
re-processed into different forms which can be sold back into the
supply chain for rare earth magnets.
New pilot plant for hydrogen-based rare earth magnet recycling in
Birmingham, England
A process employing hydrogen is promising relief to one of the
vexing problems in recycling rare earth magnets from electronic
and automotive waste streams. The standard process involves
shredding the metal parts of computer disk drives, speakers and
electric motors. Unfortunately, the contained NdFeB magnets
break up into a friable magnetized powder which then sticks to
the ferrous scrap and the shredder itself. A production-scale
plant in Germany planned to go onstream in 2024 and a pilot
plant launched a few months ago in the UK, expected to graduate
to production-scale in 2023, are using the hydrogen-enabled
process in efforts to commercialize it.
At the center of both efforts is HyProMag Limited, closely tied
to the University of Birmingham and an outgrowth of research
conducted there. In November, its German subsidiary HyProMag
GmbH was awarded a €3.7 million grant to establish a production
facility in Baden-Wurttemberg. The first phase is to reach
a minimum capacity of 100tpa NdFeB comprising recycled rare
earth sintered magnets, alloy pellets and powders. The initial
production facility would be a similar size to a £4.3 million project
being developed by HyProMag and the University of Birmingham
at Tyseley Energy Park in the UK.
The German plant will be the first in that country using the
process, with first production targeted for 2024. Total cost of the
project is expected to be €6.1 million, about 60% funded by the
grant. HyProMag GmbH is 80% owned by HyProMag Ltd and
20% owned by Professor Carlo Burkhardt of Pforzheim University,
coordinator of the €14m SusMagPro and €13m REEsilience
EU funded recycling projects with approximately 40 partners
across the European supply chain.
Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap
Key to the design of the plants is a patented process developed
at the University of Birmingham which uses hydrogen to liberate
and break down the used magnets into an alloy powder for
remanufacture. Called HPMS (Hydrogen Processing of Magnet
Scrap), it is based on the hydrogen decrepitation process developed
in the Magnetic Materials Group at the university by the late
6 Magnetics Business & Technology * March/April 2023
HPMS offers an extremely efficient method to extract magnets
from end-of-life waste streams as a pure NdFeB alloy powder
with a very low environmental footprint. Products for recycling
are exposed to hydrogen at atmospheric pressure and room
temperature. The NdFeB magnets break apart and, crucially, the
powder which is generated is demagnetized which makes it easier
to extract. The nickel coating peels away from the surface of
the magnets and this can be separated using mechanical means.
The extracted NdFeB powder is of a purity whereby it can be
reprocessed into new magnetic materials or rare earth alloys.
Pilot plant launched at University of Birmingham
Following initial successes, the technology was recently scaled
up to the pilot scale. The pilot facility has received significant
funding via the EU Horizon 2020 project SusMagPro, one of the
largest magnet projects in Europe. In the pilot facility, a 1,200-litre
pressure vessel is able to process up to 100kg of magnets
per day.
Crucially, the resulting powder is de-magnetized during this
process, so can then be refined further before going through a
pressing and sintering process, in which the reclaimed materials
are compacted and heated to form new magnets. In doing
so, this process uses 88% less energy to create magnets when
compared to virgin sources and will offer the only indigenous
source of sintered rare earth magnets in the UK. The recycling
pilot will process scrap from a wide variety of sources including
hard drives, speakers, wind turbines and
electric motors.
The pilot plant in Birmingham was launched
in September. " This pilot plant paves the
way for the UK to take a leading role in high
performance magnet recycling. Alongside the
technologies and equipment, we have developed,
is a wealth of industry and research
expertise. These partnerships form a solid
foundation for this new industry to succeed,
said Professor Allan Walton, co-director of
the Birmingham Centre for Strategic Elements
& Critical Materials at the University of
Birmingham. He is also a founding director of
HyProMag.
Allan Walton,
University of
Birmingham
" It is vital to develop processes to ensure a sustainable supply of
these materials and reduce dependency on virgin mined metals.
As less than five per cent of end-of-life magnets are currently
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Magnetics Business & Technology - March/April 2023

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