I-Corps: Rare Earth Recycling Technologies

Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester MA

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a process to gather rare earth magnet scrap, that could both increase supply security for U.S. production of rare earth magnets and also reduce the environmental impacts of their production. This is particularly important as production of electric vehicles and offshore wind turbines which use these magnets are projected to grow by 20-50% per year over the next decade. The production rare earth element currently has a very high carbon footprint due to the use of perfluorocarbon that are then emitted into the atmosphere contributing to global warming. The rare earth metal industry produces 30,000-50,000 tons/year of Neodynium, Dysprosium, Praseodymium and Terbium. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a technology to extract rare earth metals from magnet scrap because rare earth metals are in short supply as there are currently no U.S. producers of most rare earth metals. The proposed process of recycling rare earth elements uses a liquid metal solvent leachate to dissolve the rare earth elements in magnets, followed by a novel gravity-driven multi effects thermal system distiller (G-METS) to separate the rare earth elements from the liquid metal solvent. This distillation technology seeks to reduce the overall flow sheet energy consumption by 70% and the overall capital and operating costs by 50%, compared with traditional vacuum distillation. This process, with magnesium leaching and G-METS distillation, uses much less energy than current electrolytic rare earth production, with no perfluorocarbon emissions. This proposed process with G-METS magnesium distillation may enable the economical recycling of elements in magnets. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.