In the framework of the EU FP7 MC-ITN EREAN project (European Rare Earth (Magnet) Recycling Network) a new review paper has been published on the recycling of NdFeB permanent magnets. For this paper the lead supervisors of TU Delft, University of Birmingham, Fraunhofer Institute, Chalmers University and KU Leuven joined forces to provide the most complete critical review of NdFeB magnets that has been written up to now. The paper, which was published in the Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy gives an overview of the sources of NdFeB permanent magnets related to their applications, followed by a summary of the various available technologies to recover the REEs from these magnets, including physical processing and separation, direct alloy production, and metallurgical extraction and recovery.
Full reference: Y. Yang, A. Walton, R. Sheridan, K. Güth, R. Gauß, O. Gutfleisch, M. Buchert, B.M. Steenari, T. Van Gerven, P.T. Jones, K. Binnemans, REE Recovery from end-of-life NdFeB permanent magnet scrap: a critical review, Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy, 2016, DOI 10.1007/s40831-016-0090-4. Downloadable here.
