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

这个小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，通过回收废物流中容易获得的材料。这一努力将通过支持钕铁硼（NdFeB）磁体的生产来影响工业和清洁能源制造，钕铁硼磁体是高效电动机和风力涡轮机的基础。这些资源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致动器。该公司将能够为电子产品回收公司创造一个新的可靠的收入来源，以换取稳定的磁铁供应，磁铁是稀土回收过程的主要原料。整个稀土市场以13%的复合年增长率增长。2013年，北美钕和镝市场价值约为7.95亿美元。该项目的智力价值是开发一种商业上可行的稀土元素回收工艺，最大限度地减少阻碍钕铁硼磁体回收的环境和经济问题。用于稀土提取的常规方法限于高能耗路线和/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NdFeB中回收稀土的反应化学，并为新型稀土回收路线创建知识库。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）有效利用工艺中的所有材料，通过找到最佳时间，温度，粒度和溶剂量来生产更高的产量，以便在每批中提取至少95%的所有稀土，3）最大限度地减少废料，4）优化NdFeB磁体预处理工艺。

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.