The subsequent described research work at the institute of nonferrous metallurgy of the University of Leoben is concentrated on the preparation of hard disk drives, which contain a very high amount of technology metals and the extraction of those elements.
Currently, the main problem to recover neodymium-iron-boron magnets is the missing technology for preparation. A disassembling of HDD by hand is not economic and a treatment by a shredding machine destroys the NIB-magnets, so that they cannot be separated and fed into a proper recycling process. Therefore, the investigation leads to a thermal treatment to get the component parts of a HDD in separate form.
The investigations also focus on a metallurgical way to recover the technology metals like neodymium, copper, gold as well as a reusable aluminium alloy.
The main part of the neodymium production is for permanent magnets (76 %) and almost a third of that for hard disk drives (31 %). Currently, the recycling rate for these critical raw materials, especially the rare earths, is far below 1 % because of the missing step of preparation for HDDs and the resulting loss of such metals."/> The subsequent described research work at the institute of nonferrous metallurgy of the University of Leoben is concentrated on the preparation of hard disk drives, which contain a very high amount of technology metals and the extraction of those elements.
Currently, the main problem to recover neodymium-iron-boron magnets is the missing technology for preparation. A disassembling of HDD by hand is not economic and a treatment by a shredding machine destroys the NIB-magnets, so that they cannot be separated and fed into a proper recycling process. Therefore, the investigation leads to a thermal treatment to get the component parts of a HDD in separate form.
The investigations also focus on a metallurgical way to recover the technology metals like neodymium, copper, gold as well as a reusable aluminium alloy.
The main part of the neodymium production is for permanent magnets (76 %) and almost a third of that for hard disk drives (31 %). Currently, the recycling rate for these critical raw materials, especially the rare earths, is far below 1 % because of the missing step of preparation for HDDs and the resulting loss of such metals."/> The subsequent described research work at the institute of nonferrous metallurgy of the University of Leoben is concentrated on the preparation of hard disk drives, which contain a very high amount of technology metals and the extraction of those elements.
Currently, the main problem to recover neodymium-iron-boron magnets is the missing technology for preparation. A disassembling of HDD by hand is not economic and a treatment by a shredding machine destroys the NIB-magnets, so that they cannot be separated and fed into a proper recycling process. Therefore, the investigation leads to a thermal treatment to get the component parts of a HDD in separate form.
The investigations also focus on a metallurgical way to recover the technology metals like neodymium, copper, gold as well as a reusable aluminium alloy.
The main part of the neodymium production is for permanent magnets (76 %) and almost a third of that for hard disk drives (31 %). Currently, the recycling rate for these critical raw materials, especially the rare earths, is far below 1 % because of the missing step of preparation for HDDs and the resulting loss of such metals." /> The subsequent described research work at the institute of nonferrous metallurgy of the University of Leoben is concentrated on the preparation of hard disk drives, which contain a very high amount of technology metals and the extraction of those elements.
Currently, the main problem to recover neodymium-iron-boron magnets is the missing technology for preparation. A disassembling of HDD by hand is not economic and a treatment by a shredding machine destroys the NIB-magnets, so that they cannot be separated and fed into a proper recycling process. Therefore, the investigation leads to a thermal treatment to get the component parts of a HDD in separate form.
The investigations also focus on a metallurgical way to recover the technology metals like neodymium, copper, gold as well as a reusable aluminium alloy.
The main part of the neodymium production is for permanent magnets (76 %) and almost a third of that for hard disk drives (31 %). Currently, the recycling rate for these critical raw materials, especially the rare earths, is far below 1 % because of the missing step of preparation for HDDs and the resulting loss of such metals.">

2014-Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit
SIPS 2014 Volume 4: Recycling & Secondary Battery

Editors:Kongoli F
Publisher:Flogen Star OUTREACH
Publication Year:2014
Pages:498 pages
ISBN:978-1-987820-06-5
ISSN:2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series)
CD-SIPS2014_Volume
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    Recovery of technology metals from a WEEE-fraction

    Philipp Stuhlpfarrer1; Stefan Luidold1; Holger Schnideritsch1; Helmut Antrekowitsch1;
    1MONTANUNIVERSITAET LEOBEN, Leoben, Austria;
    Type of Paper: Regular
    Id Paper: 43
    Topic: 5

    Abstract:

    The use of critical raw materials increases due to higher demands on electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). The European Union defined a list of 14 critical raw materials, where some of these metals are included in waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).
    The high content of valuable substances in electrical and electronic equipment in relation to the primary ores showed a potential for its use as new raw materials sources, the so called "urban mining". The other positive effect of urban mining is to save existing mineral resources and to relieve the primary production and get a new opportunity instead of landfilling.
    The subsequent described research work at the institute of nonferrous metallurgy of the University of Leoben is concentrated on the preparation of hard disk drives, which contain a very high amount of technology metals and the extraction of those elements.
    Currently, the main problem to recover neodymium-iron-boron magnets is the missing technology for preparation. A disassembling of HDD by hand is not economic and a treatment by a shredding machine destroys the NIB-magnets, so that they cannot be separated and fed into a proper recycling process. Therefore, the investigation leads to a thermal treatment to get the component parts of a HDD in separate form.
    The investigations also focus on a metallurgical way to recover the technology metals like neodymium, copper, gold as well as a reusable aluminium alloy.
    The main part of the neodymium production is for permanent magnets (76 %) and almost a third of that for hard disk drives (31 %). Currently, the recycling rate for these critical raw materials, especially the rare earths, is far below 1 % because of the missing step of preparation for HDDs and the resulting loss of such metals.

    Keywords:

    hard disk drive, HDD, neodymium,copper, gold, recycling, NIB-magnets

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    Cite this article as:

    Stuhlpfarrer P, Luidold S, Schnideritsch H, Antrekowitsch H. Recovery of technology metals from a WEEE-fraction. In: Kongoli F, editors. Sustainable Industrial Processing Summit SIPS 2014 Volume 4: Recycling & Secondary Battery. Volume 4. Montreal(Canada): FLOGEN Star Outreach. 2014. p. 251-266.