United Kingdom – Mkango UK, a subsidiary of Mkango Resources, is working on a £3.4 million magnet recycling project called SCREAM with B&W Group, EMR, GKN Automotive, HyProMag, Jaguar Land Rover, and the University of Birmingham.
Driving the Electric Revolution, an Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund challenge delivered by UK Research and Innovation, will provide £2.4 million (71%) of the funding (UKRI).
Mkango UK’s chemical processing pilot plant program, which will be developed as part of the project, has a budget of £1.1 million, of which UKRI will fund £0.8 million, or 70%. Mkango UK was founded by Mkango to assess and develop complementary rare earth recycling and green technology opportunities in the United Kingdom.
Rare earth magnets are used in a variety of clean energy technologies, such as electric vehicles and wind turbine generators, as well as electronic devices such as cell phones, hard drives, and loudspeakers. Primary rare earths are not available in the UK. The development of domestic sources of recycled rare earths via HPMS, a homegrown technology, offers the UK a significant opportunity to accelerate the development of sustainable and competitive rare earth magnet production.
HPMS and HyProMag
The patented HPMS process for extracting and demagnetizing NdFeB alloy powders from magnets embedded in scrap and redundant equipment was developed at the University of Birmingham’s Magnetic Materials Group and licensed to HyProMag. Mkango UK’s development of chemical processing of both recycled HPMS NdFeB powder and magnet swarf complements HyProMag’s short loop HPMS process, extending the range of materials that can be processed to include scrap that isn’t suitable for short loop magnet recycling.
The SCREAM
The SCREAM project’s goal is to create a recycled source of permanent magnets in the UK, which will increase supply security and reduce environmental impact by 10%. Short loop magnet recycling is expected to have a significant environmental benefit, requiring 88 percent less energy than primary mining, separation, metal alloy production, and magnet production.
Using an automated sorting line and HPMS, NdFeB magnets will be recovered from end-of-life automotive, robotic, separator, and loudspeaker scrap streams. Mkango UK will convert the extracted HPMS powders into strip cast alloys for blending or chemical processing or process them directly from the alloys into sintered magnets on a newly installed production line at the Tyseley Energy Park in Birmingham.
This process will be scaled up by HyProMag to produce magnets of various grades for a variety of applications. The recycled magnets will be tested in a variety of applications, including loudspeakers, retaining clips, a magnetic separator, and an automotive drive motor, before being independently qualified for magnetic, corrosion, and mechanical performance.
