FragMag - Recovering Magnets with Electric Pulse Fragmentation

FragMag - 通过电脉冲碎片恢复磁铁

• 批准号: 10083971
• 金额: $ 7.74万
• 依托单位: LIGHTNING MACHINES LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Feasibility Studies
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=10083971
• 关键词: FragMag; Recovering; Magnets; Electric; Pulse

The number of electric vehicles (EV's) on the worlds roads has been forecast to increase by 1300% to 145 million by 2030, the increase driven by consumer demand and government legislation. Modern EV's are powered by motors containing powerful magnets to make them more efficient. These magnets contain neodymium and dysprosium, known as 'rare earth elements' (REE's) that are largely produced in China, who export these as rare earth oxides (REO's) for use in the manufacture of these high-powered magnets.To reduce the UK's dependence on imported REO's and to create our own supply, we must find a way to recycle old EV motors to recover the REO's within the magnets to re-use them in the manufacturing of new products. The dominant technique for recycling magnets is through hydrogen decrepitation, an established technique that involves exposing the magnet to hydrogen that breaks it down into a powder form. These magnets are however embedded in a strong resin that prevents access of hydrogen to the magnet. The current state-of-the-art is therefore to shred the motors to recover major metals such as iron, however the small quantities of REO's are 'lost' in the shredded mass and it is uneconomical to sort and process the motor waste to recover the REO's.This project will use electric pulse fragmentation (EPF), a new novel technology that uses controlled small electrical discharges of up to 200kV to break apart solid materials. The hypothesis to be verified in this feasability study is that magnets can be freed from the resin using this process.Lightning Machines Limited will treat samples of EV rotors containing resin-locked magnets with their new technology and the University of Warwick will analyse the products of this treatment and assess the performance of the process and quality of material recovered.The partners will then perform a SWOT analysis and investigate the potential for the industrial upscaling of the technology, and disseminate the findings of this study through publication in scientific journals.

预计到 2030 年，全球道路上的电动汽车 (EV) 数量将增加 1300%，达到 1.45 亿辆，这一增长是由消费者需求和政府立法推动的。现代电动汽车由含有强力磁铁的电机提供动力，以提高效率。这些磁体含有被称为“稀土元素”(REE) 的钕和镝，主要在中国生产，中国将这些物质作为稀土氧化物 (REO) 出口，用于制造这些高功率磁体。为了摆脱对进口 REO 的依赖并创造我们自己的供应，我们必须找到一种方法来回收旧的电动汽车电机，以回收磁铁中的 REO，以便在新产品的制造中重新使用它们。回收磁铁的主要技术是通过氢爆裂，这是一种成熟的技术，涉及将磁铁暴露在氢气中，将其分解成粉末形式。然而，这些磁体嵌入在坚固的树脂中，以防止氢进入磁体。因此，当前最先进的技术是将电机切碎以回收铁等主要金属，但是少量的 REO 会“丢失”在切碎的物质中，并且对电机废物进行分类和处理以回收是不经济的该项目将使用电脉冲破碎 (EPF)，这是一种新技术，使用高达 200kV 的受控小电流放电来分解固体材料。本可行性研究要验证的假设是，使用此工艺可以将磁体从树脂中分离出来。Lightning Machines Limited 将使用其新技术处理含有树脂锁定磁体的电动汽车转子样品，华威大学将分析以下产品然后，合作伙伴将进行 SWOT 分析，调查该技术的工业升级潜力，并通过在科学期刊上发表文章来传播这项研究的结果。