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

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.