Projects
Antisolvent precipitation for the valorisation of end-of-life Nd-Fe-B magnets (ANTOSOLVO). KU Leuven
Recently Europe has set ambitious climate targets, as embedded in “The European Green Deal” (EC, COM(2019)640). To drive this transition to a climate-neutral economy, Europe will need a sustainable and secure supply of a host of key technology metals, which are essential for large-scale renewable energy production and storage as well as the electrification of mobility. However, key metals such as rare earths and cobalt have been classified by ...
Search and study of Antarctic meteorites, Belgian contribution Vrije Universiteit Brussel
REBIKE KU Leuven
In recent years the supply of certain materials has come under increasing supply constraints as outlined in the EU critical materials list. The rare-earth elements top this list, and within the rare-earth category, Nd and Dy are singled out due to their important role in the manufacture of rare-earth permanent magnets (based on an alloy of NdFeB with additions of Dy). NdFeB magnets are used in a diverse range of products including for example ...
European Training Network for Zero-waste Valorisation of Bauxite Residue KU Leuven
To tackle its (critical) raw material dependency, Europe needs comprehensive strategies based on sustainable primary mining, substitution and recycling. Freshly produced flows and stocks of landfilled industrial residues such as mine tailings, non-ferrous slag and bauxite residue (BR) can provide major amounts of critical metals and, concurrently, minerals for low-carbon building materials. The European Training Network for Zero-Waste ...
Recovery of scandium, yttrium and lanthanides from bauxite residue using solvent extraction with ionic liquids. KU Leuven
Secondary resources are essential to maintain the supply of critical metals in our fast-developing society. Recovery of metals from waste materials is not only important to meet the increasing demand, but also in view of a sustainable future for our planet. The rare-earth elements are listed as critical metals by the European Commission because of their essential role in, amongst others, permanent magnets for many high-tech and green ...
Interplay of superconductivity and magnetism in rare-earth nitride films KU Leuven
Superconductivity was given its name over 100 years ago because of its most obvious property: the loss of all electrical resistance below a certain critical temperature. This discovery was exciting, since it meant the possibility of energy transport without any losses. It took researchers over 20 years to realize that superconductors are more than just perfect conductors, they are also materials that expel magnetic fields, called perfect ...
Holistic Approach to enhance the Recyclability of rare-earth permanent Magnets Obtained from aNY waste stream Ghent University
HARMONY project aims at strengthening the independency and the competitiveness of European industry, enabling a resilience value chain of raw materials by developing and validating at pilot scale an innovative, green and safe closed-loop recycling process of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from End-of-Life (EoL) NdFeB permanent magnets. The recycling loop encompasses the collection and dismantling of EoL NdFeB magnets and WEEE scrap, the recovery ...
Nieuwe synchroonmotoren voor elektrische voertuigen KU Leuven
HEFT considers that an energy efficient rare-earth synchronous motor is the best option for next generation high-power primary axle traction EVs and proposes a set of innovation challenges on electric synchronous motor configuration based on SiC inverters (direct cooling of rotor and stator, advance insulation for high voltage, multibarrier rotor topology, wave windings) and advanced materials (advanced GBD magnets, epoxy for magnet fixation, ...
Speciation and transport of RRE in Passive Treatment Systems of the Iberian Pyrite Belt KU Leuven
Rare Earth Elements (REE) are crucial to modern technological applications due to their unique chemical, optical and magnetic properties. Because of this very reason, the demand for REE has been increasing very rapidly since mid 90s. In fact, it is foreseen that the advancement in technologies would further increase the demand in the future as well. On this front, question arises as to whether available REE reserves in the world would be ...