Techno-economic Assessment of a Novel SmCo Permanent Magnet Manufacturing Method

Abstract

Rare earth elements (REEs) are becoming ever more important and broadly used in rare earth permanent magnets (REPMs) for electric vehicles, wind turbines, cell phones, etc. While neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets are very popular, samarium cobalt (SmCo) magnets are increasingly being viewed as an alternative REPM option due their better resistance to corrosion and oxidation. These properties position SmCo for wide use in high temperature and extreme working environments. As is well known, the availability of REEs for many applications is subject to substantial risk owing to the dependence on China for REE containing ores and processing. Though recycling end-of-life (EOL) magnets would help alleviate the supply chain crisis, lowering the failure rate during manufacturing will more effectively utilize the resources that are available. Techno-economic assessments (TEAs) were performed for a traditional and a novel process to manufacture SmCo magnets. The results show that the novel process is economically feasible and more resistant to the vagaries of market price changes.