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

Published

December 27, 2024

Author(s)

Jesus Perez-Cardona, Nehika Mathur, Sidi Deng, Miha Zakotnik, Catalina Oana Tudor, John Sutherland

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 in an exponentially increasing demand of electric vehicle and other industries. A comparative assessment of the environmental 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 some uncertainty analysis with an optimization technique, multiple scenarios for a harvesting facility are economically feasible. Future work will be needed to reduce financial risks.

Citation

ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4067526

Local Download

Keywords

Hard Disk Drives, Harvesting Machine, Magnet-to-Magnet Recycling, Techno-Economic Assessment, Life-Cycle Assessment

Citation

Perez-Cardona, J. , Mathur, N. , Deng, S. , Zakotnik, M. , Oana Tudor, C. and Sutherland, J. (2024), Environmental and Economic Benefits of Harvesting Machine for Magnet-to-Magnet Recycling, ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, [online], https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4067526, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=958277 (Accessed February 6, 2025)