By developing an innovative recycling and utilization process that minimizes environmental risks and transferring the results to the SME user group, contribution has been made to increase the research/development capacity of our country (competence with a doctorate and master's degree, sharing information with SMEs). The project was built on the establishment of long-term collaborations and also created a platform for innovative ideas to transfer into the commercialization phase. In this context, university-industry cooperation has been removed from being an intangible concept and a sustainable partnership has been provided for university employees and industry employees. During the project, meetings were held with domestic and foreign project partners at least twice a year, and the information produced through R&D was transferred to SME groups and disseminated. Due to the large number of products with high added value that need to be recycled, this project also laid the groundwork for new projects and collaborations. Shared outputs are internalized by the project partners.

With the recycling processes developed within the scope of the project, the recycling of NdFeB magnets, whose lifespan has been completed or scrapped due to a process error, constitutes the most effective alternative in solving the problem of raw material supply in the mining, ferrous-non-ferrous, rare earth elements and magnetic materials sectors, and in the protection of natural resources. In addition, due to the presence of nuclear elements during the production of rare earth elements (REE) from ore, and since it is a method that is 10 times more energy efficient than production from ore in the recovery process, recovery of these elements, resource efficiency, reduction of gas emissions, protection of groundwater and climate, developing our country's metallurgy and recovery strategies by following the developments in the world, supporting our industries for critical raw materials/metals are of great importance.

Widespread Effect: 

SCI-Indexed Publications

• Uysal, E., Emil-Kaya, E., Yesiltepe-Ozcelik, D., Gurmen, S., 2023: Nd Recovery from Wastewater with Magnetic Calcium Alginate ((1,4)- β -d-Mannuronic Acid and α -L-Guluronic Acid) Hydrogels, ACS Omega, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.2c08221.
• Emil-Kaya, E., Polat, B., Stopic, S., Gurmen, S., Friedrich, B., 2023: Recycling of NdFeB Magnets Employing Oxidation, Selective Leaching, and Iron Precipitation in an Autoclave, Royal Society of Chemistry Advances. 13(2), 1320-1332.
• Emil-Kaya, E., Stopic, S., Gurmen, S., Friedrich, B., Production of Rare Earth Element Oxides Powders by Solution Combustion: A New Approach for Recycling of NdFeB Magnets, RSC Advances, 2022.
• Uysal, E., Al, S., Emil-Kaya, E., Stopic, S., Gürmen, S., & Friedrich, B. (2022). Hydrometallurgical recycling of waste NdFeB magnets: Design of experiment, optimisation of low concentrations of sulphuric acid leaching and process analysis. Canadian Metallurgical Quarterly, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00084433.2022.2058152
• Emil-Kaya, E., Kaya, O., Stopic, S., Gürmen, S., & Friedrich, B. (2021). NdFeB Magnets Recycling Process: An Alternative Method to Produce Mixed Rare Earth Oxide from Scrap NdFeB Magnets. Metals, 11(5), 716.

International Publications

• Emil-Kaya, E., Stopic, S., Gurmen, S., Friedrich, B., Comparison of Methods to Produce Rare Earth Oxide from Scrap NdFeB Magnets, Materials Science and Engineering Congress (MSE2022), 27-29 September, Darmstadt/Germany.
• Emil-Kaya, E., Uysal, E., Stopic, S., Gurmen, S., Friedrich, B., Recycling of Corroded NdFeB Magnets by Hydrometallurgical Route, International solvent extraction conference (ISEC2022), 26-30 September, Gotheburg/Sweden.
• Uysal, E., Emil-Kaya, E., Al, S. & S., Gürmen Iron Removal from NdFeB Waste Magnet Solutions Using Sodium Alginate Solution, IMMC 2022, Sözlü Sunum (6-8 Ekim 2022)
• Kaya, E. E., Dertmann C., Kaya, O., Stopic, S., Gürmen, S., & Friedrich, B. (2021). Rare Earth Elements Recovery from Waste NdFeB Magnets by Acid Leaching and Hematite Precipitation under Pressure in an Autoclave, Southern African Rare Earths International Conference 2021 Güney Afrika

PhD Thesis

• Elif Emil Kaya, Doktora Mezuniyeti: 13.10.2022, Recycling of waste NdFeB magnets for recovery of rare earth elements by combining pyro-and Hydrometallurgy.

  Master Thesis

• Emircan Uysal, Yüksek Lisans Mezuniyeti: 16.12.2022; Production of iron (Fe) dopped magnetic gel and recovery of neodymium (Nd) from waste NdFeB-based solutions.

In the realization of this project; TÜBİTAK Research Support Programs Presidency and International Cooperation Projects Research Support Group (UPAG) played an important role with the financial support they provided. Therefore, we would like to thank TÜBİTAK Research Support Programs Presidency and UPAG for their support to our project (120N331). In addition, we would to thank ITU Rectorate, Turkey Project Coordinator organization IMMIB, ITU Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, SME Project partners of Arçelik, WAT Motor, Exitcom, GG Material Technologies, Magiçe Magnetic Technologies, EAG, Magnet R&D and ITU BAP Unit as well as Germany Coordinating Organization Stifterverband Metalle e.V. Berlin (WV Metalle), RWTH Aache IME, Germany SME Project partners of Aurubis, EMH Technik GmbH, Magnequench GmbH, Meab Chemie Technik, GMB Deutsche Magnetwerke GmbH, MIMI Tech GmbH and Konzept GmbH for their cooperation and support.