4971

ISURF 04971 describes a method involving the acid free recycling of permanent magnets and battery materials to extract critical and valuable elements such as Rare Earth Elements (REEs), Cobalt, and Nickel. This technology allows for a environmentally and economically sustainable process for the high percent recovery of REEs, in order to be used for various applications.

 

The use of Rare Earth Elements is becoming more widespread for a large variety of new and developing technologies. However, these materials are quite expensive and environmentally hazardous to obtain. ISU and Ames Laboratory Researchers have developed a method for recycling permanent magnets and battery materials by reacting with a chlorinating agent in order to extract these REEs. The technology uses high temperature ball milling to convert and recover solid metal alloys into water soluble REE containing salts. The salts can then be dissolved in water and using simple processing, recovered as pure REEs.

ISURF 4971 allows for a 90% recovery of these REEs with a high potential for scalability of the process, making the use of these expensive materials more economically feasible. The high scalability and high percentage recovery of REEs of this technology allows for a competitive edge over methods such as molten salt electrolysis. This technology offers a viable route to the recycling of critical materials that is necessary for a more sustainable economy.

This technology is related to ISURF 4779: Mechanochemical recovery of Co, Li and other essential components from spent lithium-ion batteries

• High percent recovery of REE to maintain a sustainable economy

• Highly scalable compared to other recovery methods

• Improved performance compared to other recovery methods

High yield and immense scalability of ISURF #4971 allows for the recovery of rare earth elements and cobalt, while allowing for economic and environmental sustainability

Patent(s) applied for