Recovery of Rare Elements from magnetic waste in the WEE recycling industry

Over the past decade, Europe has increased its focus on securing and recycling Critical Raw Materials (CRM), among these the Rare Earth Elements (REE) that are crucial in electronic and green energy technology applications. Towards this end, strategic research projects, aimed at developing technologies for extraction/recycling and partnerships to close the link between research and industry development have been funded in FP7 and throughout H2020. One of these projects - REEcover - was recently successfully finalized with a small-scale value-chain demonstration of technologies developed for REE recovery from both primary (apatite tailings) and secondary end-of-life Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) sources. REEcover Demo is a natural next step towards industrial implementation, in which partners from the REEcover consortium are teaming up with additional strategic partners; WEEE processors, magnet makers and -users, with the aim of bringing REEcover technologies in an extended scope into industrial demo scale. REEcover Demo will specifically target the REE's neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr) and dysprosium (Dy), essential ingredients of high-strength magnets used in wind turbines and electric cars. Magnetic material from upgraded standard waste streams from WEEE recycling, as well as magnets selectively extracted from WEEE, sourced from different European countries, will be processed through a REEcover-developed oxide reduction route as well as through dissolution/dilution in a novel vacuum melting alloy-making process. The integrated process chain in REEcover Demo is schematically illustrated in Figure 1. A successful outcome of REEcover Demo will contribute positively to Europe's circular economy ambitions, as well as securing the access to essential elements on Europe's CRM list.