Renewable energies | Geomega tackles the recycling of permanent magnets

The Quebec company has developed a new technology for recycling rare earths.

Present, among other things, in electric cars, wind turbines, tidal turbines, industrial motors and computer hard drives, permanent magnets are mostly recycled in China. Known as a developer of clean technologies for the extraction, refining and recycling of rare earths, Geomega Resources has decided to tackle this market by building a magnet recycling demonstration plant in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville. .

The more than $5 million project recently received a $3 million grant from the Quebec government’s Technoclimat program because it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Work will begin in the summer and the demonstration plant should begin operations at the end of 2023. “It will not be large volumes, we are talking about 1.5 tonnes per day, or around 20 tonnes per month. We tackle both production waste and end-of-life products,” explains Kiril Mugerman, CEO of Geomega Resources.

Rare earths not so rare

During their manufacturing process, permanent magnets use rare earths, a group of 15 elements called “lanthanides”, 14 of which are natural and stable elements. Altogether, this group has unique chemical and physical properties due to the variation in electronic configuration between the individual rare earths. Be careful though, rare earths are not rare, despite what their name might suggest. What makes them so special is the difficulty of separating them into simple elements of high purity due to their chemical similarities. “The sad thing is that if there is no separation of the elements, these no longer really have any value”, observes Kiril Mugerman.

More efficient recycling than in China

This is where Geomega Resources comes in. The company has succeeded in developing, thanks to the contribution of its director of new technologies and researcher, Pouya Hajiani, a unique extraction and refining process. “Compared to methods employed in China and under development around the world, our process has higher rare earth recovery rates. We also reuse more than 90% of our reagents and we produce no solid or liquid effluents. We can use this method both on end-of-life magnets and on production waste. »

A growing market

Once the elements have been recovered, the objective of Ressources Géoméga is to put them back on the market so that they begin a new life cycle. Due to the huge demand for magnets for electric vehicles and renewable energies, many new magnet factories are planned both in Europe and in the United States and Mexico. Kiril Mugerman is not worried about this future competition. “Overall, the demand for recycling rare earths from magnets is a huge opportunity. We are building our demonstration plant to demonstrate the economic benefits, its efficiency and above all to prove the environmental benefits of our technology. »

Another great project with Rio Tinto

For more than 70 years, researchers have hoped to find a solution to the bauxite residues that represent an environmental challenge for aluminum smelters. Geomega Resources has taken a step in this direction with the construction of a pilot plant in Boucherville, another $4 million project in partnership with Rio Tinto. “The technology we are developing could potentially have a significant impact on the environmental aspect of aluminum production in Quebec and around the world. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but thanks to the support of Rio Tinto, the Quebec government and the federal government, we see a lot of potential in our technology and we look forward to important results from our pilot tests later this year. . »