Environmental and Economic Benefits of Harvesting Machine for Magnet-to-Magnet Recycling

Abstract Closed-loop recycling streams are increasingly taking importance on the development of a sustainable future. Neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) permanent magnets are applied in a variety of applications, including direct-drive wind turbines, electric motors for electric vehicles, hard disk drives (HDDs) in laptops, and other electric devices. End-of-life HDDs are available in the United States to be collected and recycled for the production of Nd-Fe-B magnets for the exponentially increasing demand in electric vehicles and other industries. A comparative assessment of the environmental impact of HDD recycling pathways is conducted for the production of Nd-Fe-B magnets in the United States. The results show that the magnet-to-magnet recycling route has the lowest footprint. A techno-economic assessment is conducted to compare the added value of a harvesting process versus shredding HDDs. After conducting an uncertainty analysis with an optimization technique, multiple scenarios for a harvesting facility are economically feasible. Future work will be needed to reduce financial risks.