Recovery of Rare Earth Elements from Spent NdFeB-Magnets: Separation of Iron through Reductive Smelting of the Oxidized Material (Second Part)

Hanwen Chung, Srecko Stopic*, Elif Emil-Kaya, Sebahattin Gürmen, Bernd Friedrich

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper proposes a pyrometallurgical recycling method for end-of-life NdFeB magnets by oxidizing them in air and subsequently smelting them. The smelting process enabled the recovery of rare earth elements (REEs), producing a new reach concentrate separating the iron as a metallic phase. From the products of smelting, the metallic phase showed a maximum Fe content of 92.3 wt.%, while the slag phase showed a maximum total REE (Nd, Pr, and Dy) content of 47.47 wt.%, both at a smelting temperature of 1500 °C. ICE-OES and XRD analysis were conducted on both phases, and results showed that the metal phase consists mainly of Fe and Fe3C while the slag phase consists of the RE-oxides, leftover Fe2O3, and a mixture of Fe6Nd4. The obtained slag concentrate based on the oxides of rare earth elements is suitable for further pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical treatment in order to obtain rare earth elements.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1615
JournalMetals
Volume12
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.

Keywords

  • magnets
  • oxidation
  • rare earth elements
  • recycling
  • smelting

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