FragMag - Recovering Magnets with Electric Pulse Fragmentation

预计到2030年，全球道路上的电动汽车数量将增长1300%，达到1.45亿辆，这一增长受到消费者需求和政府立法的推动。现代的电动汽车由含有强力磁铁的马达驱动，以提高效率。这些磁铁含有钕和镝，被称为“稀土元素”（REE’s），主要在中国生产，中国将其作为稀土氧化物（REO’s）出口，用于制造这些高功率磁铁。为了减少英国对进口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分解，这是一种成熟的技术，将磁铁暴露在氢中，将其分解成粉末。然而，这些磁铁被嵌入在一种强树脂中，防止氢进入磁铁。因此，目前最先进的技术是粉碎电机以回收主要金属，如铁，然而，少量的REO在粉碎的质量中“丢失”，并且对电机废物进行分类和处理以回收REO是不经济的。该项目将使用电脉冲破碎（EPF），这是一种新的新技术，使用高达200kV的可控小放电来分解固体材料。在这个可行性研究中需要验证的假设是，磁铁可以通过这个过程从树脂中释放出来。闪电机器有限公司将用他们的新技术处理含有树脂锁定磁铁的电动汽车转子样品，华威大学将分析这种处理的产品，并评估过程的性能和回收材料的质量。然后，合作伙伴将进行SWOT分析，并调查该技术的产业升级潜力，并通过在科学期刊上发表本研究结果。

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.