Inadequate infrastructure for recycling REE
Serpell, et. al, 21 --- a research associate at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy (May 2021, Oscar Serpell, Benjamin Paren - a Ph.D. student in the department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, Wan-Yi Chu - assistant professor at Mills College in Oakland, California and a former postdoctoral researcher in the Goldberg Group, located in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, “RARE EARTH ELEMENTS: A RESOURCE CONSTRAINT OF THE ENERGY TRANSITION,” https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/KCEP-Rare-Earth-Elements.pdf, JMP))
A final method for reducing demand for REEs in wind power and EV markets would be to reuse and recycle existing rare earth magnets. Unfortunately, the infrastructure and systems needed to achieve REE reprocessing are severely underdeveloped. REE reuse and recycling is limited by inefficient and costly collection, global shipping constraints, low REE concentration in most products, and long lifetimes of products (Filho 2016). Figure 3 demonstrates the lifecycle of REEs, including existing recycling methods.
Retired wind turbines and EV motors are a source of recyclable REEs, since their magnets are relatively large and can be recovered without too much difficulty. In some cases, large magnets can simply be reused and do not need to undergo the recycling process (Binnemans 2013). However, clean energy applications of REEs face another roadblock to scalable recycling: insufficient stock material.
Recycled REEs can only ever make up a portion of demand equivalent to the total stock of REEs in currently available retired equipment. Recycling in industries such as wind power and electric vehicles, where demand is increasing exponentially and manufactured equipment is designed for a decade of use or more, are inherently limited in this way. Therefore, it will be decades before the stock of retiring magnets is sufficient to meet a considerable share of new demand.