Research > Funded Research Projects > End of life magnet recycling

End of life magnet recycling

Establishing the preferred method for magnet demagnetisation and crushing at a commercial scale to complement established rare earth element recycling technology.

Project Summary

This project seeks to establish optimised processes for end-of-life magnet recycling, by utilising innovative techniques specifically for magnets deployed in offshore wind turbines.

Production of critical minerals of all kinds is expected to rise sharply, some as much as 500% by 2040. Given the current dependency on imports of rare earth elements (REE) into the UK, it will be vital for recycling of REEs in the UK to become common practice and to integrate REE recycling into the REE supply chain. Ionic technologies have developed demonstration scale comminution processes for a variety of magnets, and this project seeks to establish the best method to demagnetise and crush magnets for a commercial scale plant, which will receive both magnetised magnets and arrays.

Demagnetisation methods will be assessed based around temperature, microwaves and hydrogen routes, along with characterisation analysis using radiative heating techniques to process materials. Infra-red technology (Swansea University) will be used to assess demagnetisation potential and how it could be scaled for offshore wind and other magnets. Different processes to crush magnets to reduce them from their original size to a smaller fragmented particle sizes, will be assessed.

This project supports Ionic Technology’s recycling process which produces individual rare earth oxides with higher purity (above 99.5%) than those sourced from primary materials and can accommodate variable magnet feedstock.

Partners