Supply and Installation of a Hydrogen Reactor for Processing of Magnetic Scrap (HPMS) Vessel, to the University of Birmingham

This project is funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund; Driving the Electric Revolution under grant agreement 1524086

The University of Birmingham invites tenders for supply of a bespoke, hydrogen processing of magnet scrap (HPMS) vessel. The HPMS vessel will be the largest magnet recycling plant of its kind in the UK and will focus on processing of end of life magnets containing magnetic scrap.

The HPMS vessel is based on a patented technology, developed at the University of Birmingham, in which hydrogen is used to extract neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B) magnet powder from end of life permanent magnet containing products. During the HPMS process, sintered Nd Fe B magnets, which are embedded in end of life products, are loaded inside a vessel, which is then sealed, evacuated, back filled with an inert gas (e.g. Argon or Nitrogen), evacuated and then filled with between 1-4 bar of hydrogen at room temperature for between 1-4 hours. Once exposed to hydrogen, the sintered Nd-Fe-B undergoes the hydrogen decrepitation (HD) process and breaks down into a friable, demagnetised, hydrogenated powder.

Often the end of life products containing the Nd Fe-B material are encased within some sort of housing so the hydrogenated powder needs to be liberated from the scrap using mechanical agitation through a porous sieve stage. This is typically performed by rotating the scrap within a porous drum (3-5 mm pore size) within the HPMS vessel, after which the powder falls into a sealable collection pot at the bottom of the vessel, which can then be unloaded under an argon or nitrogen atmosphere (O2 = < 5 ppm).

It would be an advantage if the HPMS vessel could be inertly loaded with scrap in this application through a hopper system or that flanges were in place to retro-fit this.

The extracted alloy powder will be converted into recycled NdFeB magnets using further processes, which do not form part of this tender.

The HPMS process has already been demonstrated at the 5 kg scale using a 300 L vessel at the University of Birmingham. The main objective of the new HPMS vessel will be to scale this technology up to 200-300 kg batch sizes.

Note, due to the space requirements of the system, the large scale HPMS vessel will be installed at the Tyseley Energy Park (TEP).

The overall budget for this item is up to £610,000 excluding VAT.