SBIR Phase I: Sustainable Rare Earth Element Recycling from Neodymium Magnets

SBIR 第一阶段：从钕磁铁中可持续回收稀土元素

• 批准号: 1520410
• 负责人: Pradeep Samarasekere
• 金额: $ 15万
• 依托单位: Rare Resource Recycling
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2015-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1520410&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Sustainable; Rare; Earth

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project has the potential to bring to commercial scale a process that can create a secondary source of neodymium (Nd) and dysprosium (Dy). This will help reduce U.S. dependence on an unstable and limited supply of rare earth elements (REEs) from China by recycling materials readily available in waste streams. This effort will impact industrial and clean energy manufacturing by supporting the production of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets, which are fundamental for high efficiency electric motors and wind turbines. The increased availability of these resources would also improve the vertical integration of manufacturing for national security technologies, such as guided missile actuators, that depend on these rare earth elements. The company will be able to create a new and reliable revenue stream for electronics recycling companies in exchange for a steady supply of magnets, the primary feedstock for the rare earth reclamation process. The total rare earth market is increasing at a 13% compound annual growth rate. In 2013, the North American market for Nd and Dy was valued at approximately $795 million.The intellectual merit of this project is the development of a commercially viable rare earth element reclamation process that minimizes the environmental and economic issues that have hindered NdFeB magnet recycling. Conventional methods for rare earth extractions are limited to high energy consumption routes and/or methods which require the use of strong acids. The company will use a proprietary solvent mixture to dissolve the magnets and to selectively extract the REEs. The research will lead to an understanding of the reaction chemistry for recovering REEs from NdFeB and will create a knowledge base for novel rare earth recovery routes. The research objectives are to 1) increase process testing toward commercial batch size and reduce iron contamination to produce rare earths that meet customer specifications, 2) efficiently utilize all materials in the process to produce higher yields by finding the optimal timing, temperature, particle size, and solvent amounts in order to extract at least 95% of all rare earths in each batch, 3) minimize waste materials, and 4) optimize NdFeB magnet pre-processing techniques.

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目有可能将一种可以创造钕（Nd）和镝（Dy）二次来源的工艺推向商业规模。这将有助于减少美国对来自中国的不稳定和有限的稀土元素供应的依赖，通过回收废物流中现成的材料。这一努力将通过支持钕铁硼（NdFeB）磁铁的生产来影响工业和清洁能源制造业，钕铁硼磁铁是高效电动机和风力涡轮机的基础。这些资源可用性的增加还将改善国家安全技术制造的垂直整合，例如依赖这些稀土元素的导弹驱动器。该公司将能够为电子回收公司创造一个新的可靠的收入来源，以换取磁铁的稳定供应，磁铁是稀土回收过程的主要原料。整个稀土市场正以13%的年复合增长率增长。2013年，钕和镝的北美市场价值约为7.95亿美元。这个项目的智力价值在于开发了一种商业上可行的稀土元素回收工艺，最大限度地减少了阻碍钕铁硼磁体回收的环境和经济问题。传统的稀土提取方法仅限于高能耗路线和/或需要使用强酸的方法。该公司将使用一种专有的溶剂混合物来溶解磁铁，并选择性地提取稀土元素。该研究将有助于了解从钕铁硼中回收稀土的反应化学，并将为新的稀土回收途径建立知识库。研究目标是：1)增加对商业批量的工艺测试，减少铁污染，以生产符合客户规格的稀土；2)通过找到最佳的时间、温度、粒度和溶剂量，有效利用工艺中的所有材料，以提高产量，以提取每批稀土中至少95%的稀土；3)减少废料；4)优化钕铁硼磁体预处理技术。