The University of Birmingham has launched a new facility for separating and recycling rare earth magnets.
The facility in the West Midlands uses a hydrogen-based process developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham and aims to scale the process to commercial production levels.
Hydrogen Processing of Magnet Scrap (HPMS) technology is able to extract rare earth magnets from end-of-life products without the need to fully disassemble them.
Minister for Industry Chris McDonald MP, who opened the facility at Tyseley Energy Park in Birmingham, said: “This new facility is great news for the West Midlands, which will help create hundreds of well-paid local jobs and is testament to our world-leading expertise in rare earth recycling.”
“This is our Critical Minerals Strategy in action, bringing sintered magnet manufacturing back to the UK for the first time in 25 years and backing innovative projects to boost our critical minerals supply chains and power the green industries of the future.”
The recycling facility has been funded with £4.5 million by Innovate UK’s Driving the Electric Industrialisation Centres (DER-IC) with supporting grants via the Innovate Climates Programme, EPSRC, the Advanced Propulsion Centre, and EU Horizon grants.
Commenting on the opening, Professor Rachel O’Reilly MBE FRS FRSC, Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Birmingham, said: “By developing complete circular solutions for the supply of critical minerals such as those found in rare earth magnets, the University of Birmingham is playing an essential role in helping the UK become a technological leader in this field.”