Recycling of rare earth permanent magnets for advanced electric drives - Overcoming the criticality and supply risk

Due to the transformation of the automotive industry to e-mobility a rising demand for rare earth permanent magnets for electric traction motors is expected. In this paper, an overview of the worldwide market of rare earth elements, permanent magnets and their supply will be given. To overcome the criticality and supply risks different recycling routes of permanent magnets will be reviewed. Results for recycled Nd-Fe-B sintered permanent magnets via hydrogen based powder metallurgical recycling will be discussed in detail.