Poster presented in the EUCHEM congress on Ionic liquids and molten salts in Wien regarding the activities doing in the REE4EU european project.

1. J. Hidalgo1, L. Sánchez1, A. Siriwardana1, A.M. Martinez2
1 Tecnalia Research & Innovation , Mikeletegi, 2. 20009 San Sebastian, Spain
2 SINTEF Materials and Chemistry, NO-7465 Trondheim, Norway
(REE4EU's project coordinator, anamaria.martinez@sintef.no)
REE4EU: Integrated High Temperature Electrolysis (HTE) and
Ionic Liquid Extraction (ILE) for a strong and independent
European Rare Earth Elements (REE) Supply Chain
www.ree4eu.eu
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 TOPIC
SPIRE-07-2015 under Grant Agreement n° 680507.
 Due to the growing use of these products and technologies it is envisaged that REE world demand will soon exceed their supply. Therefore, the recycling of
the valuable metals present in PM and batteries at the end of life is very desirable.
 However, existing recycling processes (based on traditional hydrometallurgy or pyrometallurgy) use large amounts of hazardous solutions or are based on
processes which require very high energy consumption.
 High Temperature Electrolysis (HTE) and Ionic Liquid Extraction (ILE), could be very promising alternatives for the development of more efficient and
environmentally friendly recycling processes.
 Rare Earth Elements (REE), are key in high
technology and clean energy devices. They
become strategically important metals (Permanent
Magnets (PM)) and are fundamental components
of such devices. Many rechargeable batteries,
highly efficient electric Engines, and generators
contain REE compounds in their composition. For
example, they are used in hard disk drives, hybrid
electric vehicles, wind mills or in everyday
consumer products that content batteries such as
mobile phones, laptops, industrial equipment,
etc…
 Apart from lanthanides, many batteries contain
also other valuable metals such as nickel which
are very technologically and economically
important.
BACKGROUND & MOTIVATION
Suplyrisk
Economic importance
REE are high supply risk materials
Source: Report on critical raw materials for the EU (May 2014)
Source: www.frontierrareearths.com
Aplications of REE
Source: www.good.is/infographics
World REE supply
Current REE production
countries are low
Source:
www.eramet.com
Pyrometallurgical recycling
High energy consumption
Hydrometallurgical recycling
Large amounts of hazardous solutions
Source:
www.nickelhuette.com
Disposal to landfill
Source:
www.mibiz.com
Current existing recycling
REE4EU PROJECT
General objective
 To develop new, efficient and cost
effective industrial recycling
processes (extraction and production
route) for recovering of REE and
other valuable metals such as nickel
containing EOL products or wastes.
It will make available recycled rare
earth alloys for magnet production
for the first time at industrial scale
The project will develop, validate
and demonstrate in 2 industrially
relevant pilots an innovative rare
earth alloys production route from
permanent magnets and nickel metal
hydride battery waste.
 Recover neodymium, dysprosium, other rare earth metals and nickel from EOL
or SWARF permanent magnets and nickel metal hydride batteries
 Identify the economic, environmental and societal benefits of the new process
technology and the potential innovation in the metal manufacturing and recovery
sectors
 Create intellectual property in the use of ionic liquids and high temperature
electrochemistry technology in the recycling and recovery of metals
 Create new industrial application and employment opportunities
 This will increase Europe’s independence from imports and will provide valuable
raw materials for fast growing European green-technology industries
 Contribute to the development of improved standards in the recycling sector
Objectives
 The REE4EU project consortium led by SINTEF, is composed by 14 partners from 7
European countries, representing the full value chain: RE metal producers, PM
manufacturers, SME process engineering companies and LCA experts, large electronics and
battery recycling companies (LCM, VAC, ELKEM, IDENER, A3I-INOVERTIS, SNAM,
STENA). SME technology transfer, innovation specialists as well as chemical and end-user
associations (PNO, CEFIC and AVERE). 4 top research institutes (SINTEF, TECNALIA, UPS’
LABORATOIRE DE GÉNIE and CEA) on high temperature electrolysis, ionic liquids and RE
recycling.
Consortium
Value chainProcess
Metal % NiMH
Ce (%) 10,5
La (%) 7,2
Nd (%) 3,2
Pr (%) 1,07
Y (%) 0,48
Yb (%) 0,41
Al (%) 1,18
Co (%) 8,1
Fe (%) 1,9
Mn (%) 3,34
Ni (%) 57,5
Metal % SWARF
Dy (%) 3,18
Nd (%) 17,8
Pr (%) 0,71
Fe (%) 45,3
Al (%) 0,46
B (%) 0,72
Ca (%) 0,53
Co (%) 1,36
Cu (%) 0,09
Ni (%) 0,55
Zn (%) 0,002
Metal % EOL PM
Nd (%) 26,7
Dy (%) 3,70
Pr (%) 0,35
Co (%) 0,03
Cu (%) 0,05
Fe (%) 66,3
Ca (%) 0,04
Al (%) 0,27
B (%) 0,99
ICP Analysis
EOL Magnets
Full ingots - Grinded powder
SWARF
Sieved ≠ sizes
NiMH battery
Sieved powder
Input materials
Precipitation +
calcination to get REO
2
Leaching + selective
Ionic liquid extraction
1
RE alloy (mischmetal)
High Temperature
Electrolysis Process
3
ElectrolysisPelletization
Reuse4
 The targeted integrated solution
is based on recently developed
lab-proven technologies for
direct high temperature
electrolysis of rare earth alloys
production combined with an
innovative and proven Ionic
liquid extraction or tailored
hydrometallurgical pre-
treatment.
 The proposed approach will
determine the improvements in
cost and environmental
performance compared to state
of the art technologies. This
includes reduction of process
steps and waste generation and
50% energy savings