Scalability Analysis of Recycling Markets for NdFeB Magnets in the United States

Over the past decades, rare earth elements (REE) have become a crucial backbone to the functioning of modern technology infrastructure, particularly due to their inclusion within NdFeB magnets which power technologies such as hard disk drives and wind turbines. However, mining and extraction of REEs pose significant environmental and human health risks, thus signaling a need for more sustainable methods of sourcing. This research aims to compare the impact and effectiveness of three recycling processes for decommissioned NdFeB magnets sourced from end-of-life wind turbines, as well as consider strategies for developing these processes on an industrial scale. A material flow analysis (MFA) has been conducted to determine comparable input and output factors for two types of laboratory-scale recycling methods, molten salt electrolysis and hydrometallurgy, and one industrial-scale method, magnet-to-magnet. Following this, an impact analysis of potential industrial level magnet recycling operations for molten salt electrolysis and hydrometallurgy was conducted. The results show that molten salt electrolysis had the highest levels of impact for global warming, ozone depletion, and energy usage of the three methods when scaled on an industrial level. Hydrometallurgy had relatively low energy usage and emissions impacts but required large amounts of water and produced high levels of wastewater. The magnet-to-magnet process showed promising impact results in comparison with the alternate two methods, but further development needs to be done to circumvent the continued use of virgin REE in the final production steps for novel magnets. Overall, it is recommended that locations of recycling operations should be pursued for each process relative to energy and water usage needs, as well as transportation distance from wind farms.