Skip to main content

About SUSMAGPRO – Objectives

What are the objectives of SUSMAGPRO?

Technical objectives
  • Extract 6 tonnes of neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) powders per year thanks to an innovative pilot robotic sorting line locating and separating NdFeB-magnet-containing components from various waste electrical and electronic equipment.
  • Establish four plants producing 110 t/yr reusable NdFeB powders by scaling up lines and processes such as the Hydrogen-based Processing of Magnet Scrap (HPMS).
  • Produce tailormade magnetic solutions for the industry with >100 t/yr of cast alloys and permanent magnets processed with the recycled powders in 4 pilot routes.
  • Create demonstrators such as motors, water pumps, headphones and loudspeaker modules integrating reprocessed magnets to raise user acceptance for recycled products, and contribute to pave the way to design for recycling.
Economic Objectives
  • Identify and assess main sources of waste material containing NdFeB by determining their geographical locations, volumes and chemical compositions, focusing initially on hard disk drives, components of electric cars motors, loudspeakers, water pumps and wind turbines.
  • Produce 15% of EU demand (450 t/yr) for NdFeB magnetic products within 5 years of the project by creating a long-term business plan for the SUSMAGPRO recycling and reprocessing solutions.
Environmental objectives
  • Reduce the environmental impacts and health risks related to the presence of elements like rare earths and nickel (from coatings) in landfills in compliance with the EU’s environmental regulations.
  • Reduce by >75% the energy consumed in, and the environmental damage associated with the mining and refining of REEs by maintaining a circular economy for these materials within the EU, contributing significantly to meeting ambitious EU energy and climate targets for 2030.
  • Reduce waste by improving production techniques and making magnets more recyclable and eco-friendlier.
Social objectives
  • Raise awareness on the benefits of a European circular economy of rare earth magnets by communicating findings to the general public, academia, industry, local and national governments and the European Commission.
  • Find synergies with related national and EU projects, initiatives, EIT Raw Materials (i.e., lighthouse programmes & zero-waste cluster) and global standards organisations.