PIONEER ASTRONAUTICS — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: 06c

Description

The vast majority of rare earth elements used in the United States are imported from China. The Rare Earth Element Extraction and Recycling REEER process employs green chemistry that will enable domestic, costeffective rare earth recycling to significantly reduce strategic risks and price fluctuations associated with the import of these commodities. A stable, domestic supply of rare earth elements is available in the form of manufacturing wastes and recycled magnets to enable U.S. production of rare earth magnets, key components in electric vehicle motors and wind turbines. Rare Earth Element Extraction and Recycling utilizes a novel, recyclable, aqueous solution to recover a suite of rare earth elements including neodymium, a major component of highstrength permanent magnets. The target feed for the technology is magnet manufacturing waste or recycled magnet material that does not meet specifications for direct reuse due to oxidation or contamination. The product is a mixed rareearth oxide which can be reduced to an alloy for magnet manufacturing or further processed for separation into individual elements. Results obtained during SBIR Phase I program demonstrated a 99% pure rareearth oxide product with yields of 75% or higher in nonoptimized experiments. Recycling the leach solution was demonstrated with no reduction in purity or yields. Overall, the project demonstrated a robust and reliable rare earth separation procedure on the labscale. Economic analysis shows favorable rates of return for a REEER plant over a wide range of feed and product prices. The REEER Phase I results identified key process parameters to be addressed during Phase II process refinement and optimization. The general Phase II approach includes system scaleup and optimization, verification of operations, and complete recycle of all components of the process. A commercialgrade mixed rareearth oxide is the first planned product to be marketed using the proposed technology, which can be converted to an alloy by our commercial partner for magnet production. The Rare Earth Element Extraction and Recycling program will help to advance domestic rare earth manufacturing technologies, provide economic benefits via new business development, create new high technology jobs, and boost U.S. security interests. The project provides a key piece of technology that can become part of a domestic critical materials supply chain and can therefore facilitate the integration of raw materials processing, refining, and product manufacturing. Securing a domestic supply of rare earth elements from manufacturing waste and recycled magnets of variable quality will substantially reduce strategic risks to the U.S. Government by reducing reliance on foreign providers and by helping to stabilize market price swings that can result from foreign supply interruptions.