MagREEsource, a spin-off of the CNRS-Institut Néel, is organizing a Euro 5 Million fundraising that will enable it to establish a 50-ton-per year magnet recycling facility this year in Grenoble, France with aims toward 500-ton operation in 2027. The company’s recycling process is based on hydrogen technology.
Already awarded with BPI France Recovery Plan in 2020, the company has announced that it will raise funds from European national funds and the private sector. Tangent Line (PFR Poland), Finindus (ArcelorMittal), EIT RawMaterials, and private investors are participating in this fundraising that will allow the installation of a magnet recycling and production unit in Grenoble with a capacity of 50 tons by 2023.
This first 50-ton-per-year industrial pilot will be operational in the second half of 2023 and will manufacture high performance sintered magnets from recycled material, using MagREEsource’s patented hydrogen technology. A research and development team next to the production site will keep developing 4D magnets printed by additive manufacturing.
“With the ambition to open a MagFactory in 2027 with a capacity of 500 tons, we demonstrate that reindustrialization and circular economy can solve a problem of sovereignty,” said Erick Petit, MagREEsource CEO and cofounder.In order to secure its own supply and the strategic autonomy of European manufacturers, MagREEsource pursues clean technology for recycling end-of-life magnets with hydrogen, in order to recover a powder that can be directly reused for the manufacture of new magnets with a carbon footprint reduced by 91% compared to those produced by mining extraction in China.
”MagREEsource provides a disruptive solution for the recycling and manufacturing of Rare Earth
magnets needed for Europe’s green transition, and we are delighted to continue to support them.
to accelerate the diversification of raw material supply for a greener, more sustainable, and resilient
Europe,” said Michel Vanavermaete, innovation hub director at EIT RawMaterials. At the time of the Energy Transition, European contractors are facing a huge challenge to electrify and decarbonize their own technological offer. To help these manufacturers differentiate themselves from Chinese standards, MagREEsource brings a triple competence, metallurgy, magnetics and deeptech. This has resulted in a first patent on the hydrogen recycling process and another patent on 4D magnets by additive manufacturing. Taking magnet production a step further than near net shape sintering, says the company, additive manufacturing reduces the amount of material
required to produce a magnet, improves reactivity and allows for complex shapes with an optimized magnetic architecture. For more info, visit: www.magreesource.org
