About the Project

Abstract

Permanent magnets (PM) are vital components of the green transition. PMs have a central role in renewable energy (i.e. in wind turbines, there is 80 – 650 kg/MW of PM) and sustainable mobility (for example, 5 – 10 kg of PM in a single electric car), and demand for high-quality PMs is ever increasing to enable the green transition. The best-performing PMs are based on REEs, while lower-performance PMs use ferrites. Due to the high performance of REE magnets, most modern devices employ them, as they are lighter and lead to better efficiency. Unfortunately, REEs are critical raw materials owing to their supply risk and price volatility, and also their harmful environmental impacts. GENIUS seeks to address the challenges brought forward in this call’s Topic 2: Strengthening the circular economy by substitution of critical materials in products and components by recycled REE-free or REE-lean magnets. To address these challenges, the magnets developed in GENIUS will be produced solely by recycling of injection moulded PM scrap material, with the recycling done in several stages, by milling, or milling followed by polymer removal and annealing to recover the magnetic properties of powders.

The GENIUS project’s ambition is to develop recycled REE-free/REE-lean PMs by additive manufacturing coupled with novel consolidation techniques to reduce Europe’s dependency on REEs and enable the circular economy of materials and value. A primary focus is on making future PM manufacture sustainable and environmentally sound, and we are hoping long-term to reduce Europe´s import of REE by 3,800 tons/year, and have considerable economic and job growth impacts. As of 2022 only 12% of secondary materials and resources are brought back to the European economy with nearly no recycling or reuse of PMs at present. Our approach will establish innovative, functionally recyclable PM designs, circular paths, and efficient workflows scalable to industry scales leading to a future of more efficient REE-free motors.

The project will address important challenges to have a significant impact on EU critical materials independence and reuse of materials within the circular economy, enabling the faster uptake of green energy and mobility solutions. It will directly impact the expected outcomes of the call, as we will work towards developing competitive REE-free/lean PMs produced solely out of scrap materials. GENIUS magnets aim to partially or completely substitute REEs, the most critical raw materials in terms of supply risk and whose extraction are extremely environmentally harmful, with REE-free and REE-lean PMs made of recycled PM scrap. PMs are key technologies for Europe’s green transition and sustainable development of industry towards reaching Sustainable Development Goals and the targets of the COP21 Paris Agreement and European Green Deal.