A Birmingham-based rare earth magnet recycling plant aims to reduce the UK’s reliance on imports and cut carbon emissions.
The commercial-scale facility uses a “ground-breaking” hydrogen-based process developed by the Magnetic Materials Group at the University of Birmingham.
This hydrogen processing of magnet scrap (HPMS) technology efficiently extracts rare earth magnets from end-of-life products without the need to fully disassemble them.
Rare earth magnets are among the critical minerals needed for the development of low-carbon technologies such as wind turbines and electric vehicles as well as medical equipment, pumps, robotics and electronics.
The recycling facility at Tyseley Energy Park will be able to extract over 400kg of rare earth alloy powders per batch and will directly recycle these materials into new sintered magnets at a capacity of about 100 tonnes per year on a single shift, rising to more than 300 tonnes annually on multiple shifts.
The plant, which brings sintered rare...