A Systematic Classification and Labelling Approach to Support a Circular Economy Ecosystem for NdFeB-Type Magnet

Availability of magnetic materials is most crucial for modern Europe, as they are integral to energy conversion across the renewable energy and electric mobility sectors. Unfortunately, there is still no circular economy to reuse and capture value for these types of materials. With the prediction that the need for NdFeB Rare Earth (RE) magnets will double in the next 10 years, this problem becomes even more urgent. As the quality of the recollected materials varies significantly, the development of a classification system for recyclate grades of EOL NdFeB magnets in combination with an eco-labelling system for newly produced RE permanent magnets is proposed to clearly identify different magnet types and qualities. It categorises the NdFeB magnets by technical pre-processing requirements, facilitating use of the highly effective HPMS process (Hydrogen Processing of Magnetic Scrap) for re-processing extracted materials directly from NdFeB alloy. The proposed measures will have a great impact to overcome existing low recycling rates due to poor collection, high leakages of collected materials into non-suitable channels, and inappropriate interface management between logistics, mechanical pre-processing and metallurgical metals recovery.