Solving a sticky problem. Recycling super strong magnets!

Title: Solving a sticky problem. Recycling super strong magnets!

Duration: 2.06 mins

Begins

[David Gregory-Kumar] When we first reported on this recycling magnets idea back in 2016 the technology was based on an old washing machine, since then there's been a bit of an upgrade, version 2.0 is bigger.

[Professor Allan Walton] A lot bigger, we can process two tons of waste material and we can extracts anywhere from 50 kilos upwards to about 100 kilos of material at a time.

[David Gregory-Kumar] The magnets are made of rare earth metals the process turns them into a demagnetized powder so they can be collected easily and then recycled turned into more magnets and we need a lot of them. 

[Professor Allan Walton] So they're used in everything from offshore wind turbines to electric vehicles, electronic products, pumps, so anything that goes in to electrification will have these types of materials in there. 

[David Gregory-Kumar] And here's what's going on inside the machine itself, hydrogen is being pumped across this Rare Earth super strong magnet and as you can see it turns it into a powder which usefully is no longer magnetic. So this is a part from an electric vehicle and you can see it's got these super strong magnets in a circle and normally it'd be really hard to actually recycle them because this is what happens when you try and recycle it normally and all the magnets just get shredded, pop out and stick to the machine. But this is what happens when you put that part through this recycling process, all the magnets turn to powder and can be recovered.

One of the investors in the project says we need to think much harder about what happens to things like electric cars or wind turbines as more and more of them head to the scrap yard.

[Will Dawes] Recycling and what happens to those magnets at the end of life and those very valuable Rare Earths is going to be absolutely critical and you know this technology can really unlock that supply chain and you know provides a solution.

[David Gregory-Kumar]Until now all our Rare Earths have come from overseas we don't have any here but this technology will mean the Midlands is the UK's only source of Rare Earth metals to make the magnets our lives increasingly rely on. David Gregory-Kumar BBC Midlands Today Birmingham. 

Ends