Turning Magnetic Waste Into Treasure
ABOUT

Intro to project

Development of new processes for circularity of secondary materials from wastes/residues for all industrial processes.
Prove the technical and economic feasibility of the use of secondary resources in the process industry leading to products with identical properties and performances as those produced using primary resources and allowing production without quality restriction.
Increase the use of secondary resources in the process industry leading to significant increase in resource efficiency across the value chain and subsequent reduction of CO2 emissions, reduction of waste sent to landfill and overall positive environmental impact.

objectives

A summary of the main activities in provide below:
1) Demonstration of a Solid-State Chlorination, Electrochemical and Purification processes at TRL6 to separate Nd, Fe and B reaching market needed purities.
2) Demonstration of upcycling approaches for Nd, Fe, and B at TRL6 by developing industrial catalysts for the four case studies.
3) Validation of the quality and performance of final products by leading commercial companies
4) Including processes and products digitalisation: mathematical modelling and optimisation, monitoring and digital twins of plants, and digital product passports.
5) Sustainability assessments (LCA, LCC, s-LCA, circularity, risk and energy efficiency, green logistics and TEA) to demonstrate the techno-economic and social viability of solutions, including a guide to consider the gender dimension in the different project stages.
6) Paving the way to the market uptake by
a) assessments of current legislations and future development,
b) performing standardisation roadmap,
c) plan and develop communication, dissemination and exploitation activities including clustering with other projects and at least 13 stakeholder engagement events,
d) creating new business models for at least 11 Key Expected Results, and
e) development of 13 training courses targeting soft and technical skills to promote inclusion and new jobs in the value chains

project approach

NEO-CYCLE novel upcycling approaches for NdFeB magnets coming from EoL HDDs from electronic waste:
1) Inventory and characterisation.
2a) Selective Electrochemical Nd Extraction (“SENE”)
2b) Solid State Chlorination (“SSC”)
3a, 3b) Separation of Fe/B/Nd from solutions
4, 5) Boric acid and B oxide production → B esters
6) Production of Fe nanoparticles for new catalysts for ammonia synthesis
7) FeNd catalysts for Ammonia synthesis supporting H2 economy
8) Suzuki reaction for API
9) Neodymium precursors and 11) API synthesis
10) Polymerisation

Work package Nr. WP Name Leader Full name
WP1 Project Management I. IDE IDENER
WP2 Project Management II. IDE IDENER
WP3 Project Management III. IDE IDENER
WP4 Magnets inventory and finetuning of Nd, Fe and B recovery TUF TU Bergakademie Freiberg
WP5 Processes upscaling to separately recover Nd, Fe and B IKTS Fraunhofer IKTS
WP6 Upcycling approaches for Nd, Fe and B UNIPV UNIVERSITÀ DI PAVIA
WP7 Digitalisation of processes towards 4.0 IDE IDENER
WP8 Products market quality and performance validation by end-users UNIPV UNIVERSITÀ DI PAVIA
WP9 Preliminary sustainability assessments HOLOSS HOLOSS
WP10 Sustainability assessments and regulatory considerations HOLOSS HOLOSS
WP11 Communication, Dissemination, Exploitation and Training I. LCI LC Innocunsult
WP12 Communication, Dissemination, Exploitation and Training II. LCI LC Innocunsult
WP13 Communication, Dissemination, Exploitation and Training III. LCI LC Innocunsult