Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of NdFeB Magnets: Virgin Production versus Magnet-to-Magnet Recycling

Hongyue Jin; Peter Afiuny; Timothy McIntyre; Yuehwern Yih; John W. Sutherland

doi:10.1016/j.procir.2016.03.013

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of NdFeB Magnets: Virgin Production versus Magnet-to-Magnet Recycling

Hongyue Jin, Peter Afiuny, Timothy McIntyre, Yuehwern Yih, John W. Sutherland

Systems and Industrial Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Conference article › peer-review

70 Scopus citations

Abstract

Rare earth elements such as neodymium and dysprosium have a substantial supply risk. Yet these elements are needed for NdFeB magnets that are indispensable for clean energy applications such as hybrid/electric vehicles and wind turbines. In order to attenuate the supply risk, recycling of NdFeB magnets from end-of-life (EOL) products is a promising alternative. Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) have been performed for NdFeB magnets produced from newly mined ("virgin") material and for magnets produced using a magnet-to-magnet recycling process. A comparison of the results shows that the value recovery system has significantly less environmental impact than virgin production.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	45-50
Number of pages	6
Journal	Procedia CIRP
Volume	48
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2016.03.013
State	Published - 2016
Event	23rd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering, LCE 2016 - Berlin, Germany Duration: May 22 2016 → May 24 2016

Keywords

Life cycle assessment (LCA)
NdFeB magnets
Rare earth elements
Value recovery

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Control and Systems Engineering
Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Access to Document

10.1016/j.procir.2016.03.013

Cite this

@article{abda1d9112ff497a9ea8e29483ee3f91,

title = "Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of NdFeB Magnets: Virgin Production versus Magnet-to-Magnet Recycling",

abstract = "Rare earth elements such as neodymium and dysprosium have a substantial supply risk. Yet these elements are needed for NdFeB magnets that are indispensable for clean energy applications such as hybrid/electric vehicles and wind turbines. In order to attenuate the supply risk, recycling of NdFeB magnets from end-of-life (EOL) products is a promising alternative. Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) have been performed for NdFeB magnets produced from newly mined ({"}virgin{"}) material and for magnets produced using a magnet-to-magnet recycling process. A comparison of the results shows that the value recovery system has significantly less environmental impact than virgin production.",

keywords = "Life cycle assessment (LCA), NdFeB magnets, Rare earth elements, Value recovery",

author = "Hongyue Jin and Peter Afiuny and Timothy McIntyre and Yuehwern Yih and Sutherland, {John W.}",

note = "Funding Information: This work is supported in part by the Critical Materials Institute, an Energy Innovation Hub funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Advanced Manufacturing Office. Hongyue Jin was supported by a subcontract as a research assistant and performed the LCA. The authors would like to thank Dr. Miha Zakotnik (Urban Mining Company) for providing valuable data and information for this paper. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 The Authors.; 23rd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering, LCE 2016 ; Conference date: 22-05-2016 Through 24-05-2016",

year = "2016",

doi = "10.1016/j.procir.2016.03.013",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "48",

pages = "45--50",

journal = "Procedia CIRP",

issn = "2212-8271",

publisher = "Elsevier BV",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of NdFeB Magnets

T2 - 23rd CIRP Conference on Life Cycle Engineering, LCE 2016

AU - Jin, Hongyue

AU - Afiuny, Peter

AU - McIntyre, Timothy

AU - Yih, Yuehwern

AU - Sutherland, John W.

N1 - Funding Information: This work is supported in part by the Critical Materials Institute, an Energy Innovation Hub funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Advanced Manufacturing Office. Hongyue Jin was supported by a subcontract as a research assistant and performed the LCA. The authors would like to thank Dr. Miha Zakotnik (Urban Mining Company) for providing valuable data and information for this paper. Publisher Copyright: © 2016 The Authors.

PY - 2016

Y1 - 2016

N2 - Rare earth elements such as neodymium and dysprosium have a substantial supply risk. Yet these elements are needed for NdFeB magnets that are indispensable for clean energy applications such as hybrid/electric vehicles and wind turbines. In order to attenuate the supply risk, recycling of NdFeB magnets from end-of-life (EOL) products is a promising alternative. Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) have been performed for NdFeB magnets produced from newly mined ("virgin") material and for magnets produced using a magnet-to-magnet recycling process. A comparison of the results shows that the value recovery system has significantly less environmental impact than virgin production.

AB - Rare earth elements such as neodymium and dysprosium have a substantial supply risk. Yet these elements are needed for NdFeB magnets that are indispensable for clean energy applications such as hybrid/electric vehicles and wind turbines. In order to attenuate the supply risk, recycling of NdFeB magnets from end-of-life (EOL) products is a promising alternative. Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) have been performed for NdFeB magnets produced from newly mined ("virgin") material and for magnets produced using a magnet-to-magnet recycling process. A comparison of the results shows that the value recovery system has significantly less environmental impact than virgin production.

KW - Life cycle assessment (LCA)

KW - NdFeB magnets

KW - Rare earth elements

KW - Value recovery

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84985993454&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84985993454&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.procir.2016.03.013

DO - 10.1016/j.procir.2016.03.013

M3 - Conference article

SN - 2212-8271

VL - 48

SP - 45

EP - 50

JO - Procedia CIRP

JF - Procedia CIRP

Y2 - 22 May 2016 through 24 May 2016

ER -

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of NdFeB Magnets: Virgin Production versus Magnet-to-Magnet Recycling

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this