EREAN - European Rare Earth (Magnet) Recycling Network - a FP7 Marie-Curie Initial Training Network

Welcome to the EREAN website

EREAN is the FP7 Marie-Curie Initial Training Network Project that started on the 1^st of September 2013. This European Rare Earth (Magnet) Recycling Network will train 15 young researchers in the science and technology of rare earths, with emphasis on the recycling of these elements from permanent magnets. An intensive intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration has been established in the EREAN consortium, which covers the full materials loop, from urban mine to magnet. By training the researchers in basic and applied rare-earth sciences, with emphasis on extraction and separation methods and rare-earth metallurgy, sustainable materials management, recycling methods, life cycle assessment (LCA), and the principles of urban mining, they will become the much needed "rare earthers" for employment in the growing European rare-earth industry.

LATEST BLOG POST

FP7 MC-ITN EREAN Presentations at ERES 2017

EREAN ESRs and Supervisors published a number of papers in the ERES 2017 Conference. Here below you can find the […]

EREAN ESRs and Supervisors published a number of papers in the ERES 2017 Conference. Here below you can find the titles of the EREAN papers/presentations.

Yongxiang YANG, REE Recovery from End-of-Life Permanent Magnet Scrap: Challenges and Opportunities in Europe
Aida ABBASALIZADEH, Seshadri SEETHARAMAN, Jilt SIETSMA and Yongxiang YANG, Electrochemical extraction of RE from REO using a novel reactive anode
Junhua XU, Efficient Recovery and Separation of Co, Nd and Dy from Ternary Solution Using Amorphous Zircomnium Phosphate and Nitric Acid
Sofía RIANO, Koen BINNEMANS, Recovery of Neodymium and Dysprosium from NdFeB Magnets using Ionic Liquid Technology
Prakash VENKATESAN, Electrochemical recycling of REEs from NdFeB magnet waste
Mehmet Ali Recai ÖNAL, Emir AKTAN, Chenna Rao BORRA, Muxing GUO, Bart BLANPAIN, Tom VAN GERVEN, Recycling of NdFeB Magnets with Nitration-Calcination-Water Leaching
Christian JÖNSSON, Extraction of Nd-Fe-B magnets from automotive rotors using hydrogen
Alexandru LIXANDRU, Iuliana POENARU, Konrad GÜTH, Roland GAUSS, Oliver GUTFLEISCH, Recycling of Nd-Fe-B scrap permanent magnets via hydrogen processing
Iuliana POENARU, Alexandru LIXANDRU, Konrad GÜTH, Roland GAUSS, Oliver GUTFLEISCH, Light rare-earths substitution in rapidly solidified Nd2Fe14B-based alloys for resource-efficient permanent magnets fabrication
Rita SCHULZE, Aida ABBASALIZADEH, Matthias BUCHERT, Estimating environmental impacts associated with a one-step recycling process to extract rare earths from end-of-life Nd-Fe-B magnets
Marino GERGORIC, ORGANIC PHASE OPTIMIZATION IN SOLVENT EXTRACTION OF RARE EARTH ELEMENTS FROM NEODYMIUM MAGNET LEACHATES
Mikhail S. TYUMENTSEV, Development of polyamide solvent extraction reagents for trivalent lanthanides

LATEST NEWS

Solvometallurgical recovery of metals from SmCo magnets

A solvometallurgical route for recycling of SmCo permanent magnets was developed by researchers from the SOLVOMET Group (SIM² KU Leuven). The method is based on non-aqueous solvent extraction to minimize water consumption.

End-of-life or scrap Sm-Co permanent magnets are a valuable resource of cobalt, samarium, copper and iron. A solvometallurgical recovery route for indirect recycling of Sm-Co permanent magnets was developed by SIM² KU Leuven SOLVOMET researchers. The method is based on non-aqueous solvent extraction to minimize water consumption. The work is published in Separation and Purification Technology. (MO/PTJ, Leuven, 25/03/2019)

SmCo magnets

End-of-life or scrap Sm-Co permanent magnets are a valuable resource to recover cobalt, samarium, copper and iron. Interestingly, the most valuable metal from Sm-Co permanent magnets is not the rare-earth samarium, but cobalt, a transition metal. Indirect recycling allows to differentiate the end applications of the recovered metals, especially of cobalt whose demand for electric-vehicle batteries is rapidly increasing.

New solvometallurgical recovery route

A solvometallurgical recovery route (cf. position paper on this branch in extractive metallurgy) was developed with the aim to recycle Sm-Co permanent magnets, while minimizing the water consumption. In fact, the Sm-Co permanent magnets were leached in a 2 mol L⁻¹hydrochloric acid solution in ethylene glycol, after a step of crushing and milling to powder size. Afterwards, cobalt, copper and iron were extracted from the leachate with 50 wt% Aliquat 336^® in toluene, which was pre-saturated with 37 wt.% hydrochloric solution. Graphical abstract

Parameters optimized for the solvent extraction of the transition metals were: the temperature, the feed/solvent ratio and the hydrochloric acid concentration. The extraction kinetics were also studied as well as the required number of stages for upscaling in mixer-settlers, this last through the construction of McCabe-Thiele diagrams.

Cobalt was stripped from the loaded solvent by a 0.5 mol L⁻¹aqueous hydrochloric acid solution. A 5 vol.% aqueous ammonia solution served to strip copper and to precipitate iron. whereas iron precipitated under these conditions.

The solvent could be reused after regeneration, i.e. evaporation of water and ammonia and reintegration of toluene and hydrochloric acid. Samarium was recovered from the hydrochloric acid-ethylene glycol raffinate by extraction with 20 vol.% Cyanex 272 in n-dodecane, followed by precipitation stripping with a 0.2 mol L^-1 aqueous oxalic acid solution. The purity of the recovered cobalt chloride was 98.3 wt% and that of samarium oxalate was 99.4 wt%.

Biography Martina Orefice

Photo Martina Orefice Martina Orefice graduated in Environmental Sciences (BSc) in 2010 and in Chemical Engineering (BEng) in 2012 and (MEng) in 2015 at the University Federico II of Naples (Italy), her birth-city. Passionate for environmental issues thanks to a board game in her childhood, Martina aims to be a professional in secondary raw materials and circular economy.

Acknowledgements

The research leading to these results received funding from the European Community’s Horizon 2020 Programme ([H2020/2014-2019]) under Grant Agreement no. 674973 (MSCA-ETN DEMETER) and from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s

Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme: Grant Agreement 694078—Solvometallurgy for critical metals (SOLCRIMET). This publication reflects only the authors’ view, exempting the Community from any liability. The authors want to thank Magneti Ljubljana d.d. (Slovenia) for providing the SmCo permanent magnets, Tony Debecker and Kevin Wierinckx for crushing the magnets, Dr. Jeroen Jordens for the particle size measurements, Dr. Jeroen Sniekers for the SEM and EDS analysis, Dr. Nagaphani Kumar Batchu for the very helpful discussion and Dr. Bieke Onghena and Dr. Peter Tom Jones for reviewing and editing the manuscript.

RARE EARTHS IN THE PRESS

NOLANS GRANTED MAJOR PROJECT STATUS

The Nolans rare earths project, in the Northern Territory, Australia, has been granted major project status by the Australian government, […]

The Nolans rare earths project, in the Northern Territory, Australia, has been granted major project status by the Australian government, providing the project with a tailored facilitation service to support a timely and efficient approvals process.

Owner Arafura Resources said that the major project status would assist with the coordination of all relevant Australian and Northern Territory government processes, so they could occur simultaneously and without delay.

Arafura is hoping to start production at Nolans in 2019, with production targeted at 20 000 t/y of rare earth oxide equivalent.

Arafura in June identified a number of improvements to the existing project structure, which are expected to deliver a more competitive and efficient project, with greater capacity to withstand cyclical downturns in rare earths prices.

These studies, targeting preferred phosphate-rich material types in the project’s resource, would deliver an optimal plant feed and throughput that resulted in an adjustment to planned yearly rare earths output to 14 000 t of total rare earth oxides over the more than 20-year operational life of the project.

Identified improvements also included planned yearly output of 110 000 t of a merchant-grade phosphoric acid product, which would be sold to the fertiliser industry.

Events

Blog

FP7 MC-ITN EREAN Presentations at ERES 2017
EREAN ESRs and Supervisors published a number of papers in the ERES 2017 Conference. Here below you can find the […]
... read more
Military Applications of the REEs in the United States
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) uses rare earths in a number of military technologies and is dependent on their availability. […]
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The magic of printable magnets
This mysterious red thing was given to three engineers with the question: “Can you explain this?” They took it […]
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Will permanent-magnet motors be replaced by induced motors without rare earth elements in the future?
The alternative motor without rare-earth minerals was developed by Toyota Motor, If this motor can be produced in large amount, […]
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Magnets in art (and design)
Ever since magnetism was discovered thousands of years ago, people have been fascinated by it. And of course we are, […]
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Policy Brief

News

Solvometallurgical recovery of metals from SmCo magnets
A solvometallurgical route for recycling of SmCo permanent magnets was developed by researchers from the SOLVOMET Group (SIM² KU Leuven). The method is based on non-aqueous solvent extraction to minimize water consumption.
... read more
Looking back on the DEMETER Concluding Symposium
On February 5-7, 2019, the DEMETER Concluding Symposium took place in Leuven. Around 70 experts from 38 organisations and 11 countries participated in the debate about the future of Electric Vehicles and the role of rare-earth permanent magnet phases and motors.
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Ionic liquids for REE recovery from lamp phosphor waste
Within the EU REMAGHIC project, KU Leuven developed a process to recover yttrium and europium from a mixed oxide obtained by the processing of lamp phosphor waste based on solvent extraction with undiluted thiocyanate ionic liquids.
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Metal recovery from spent samarium-cobalt magnets
Metals in spent samarium-cobalt magnet can be recovered by oxidative dissolution of metals in trichloride ionic liquids, followed by metal removal from the leachate with a series of stripping steps. The ionic liquids can be reused for next cycles after regeneration.
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New PhD on innovative technologies for REE recovery
New PhD on innovative technologies for REE recovery from bauxite residue On January 23rd, 2018, Rodolfo Marin Rivera obtained his […]
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