{"id":428735,"date":"2026-01-23T20:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/428735\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T20:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T20:17:16","slug":"birmingham-scientists-magnet-recycling-idea-goes-commercial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/428735\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham scientists’ magnet recycling idea goes commercial"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Gregory-KumarScience, environment and rural affairs correspondent<\/p>\n

\"BBCBBC<\/p>\n

An idea has gone from laboratory to a commercial plant on the outskirts of Birmingham<\/p>\n

Found in everything from wind turbines and electric cars to MRI machines and mobile phones, rare earth magnets are an essential part of the technology we depend on.<\/p>\n

That, plus their value, means there is lots of interest in recycling them when the machine they are part of reaches the end of its life. <\/p>\n

The problem is when you crush, shred or shatter a super strong magnet, it just sticks to the metal of the recycling plant.<\/p>\n

For more than a decade we have been reporting on a radical idea from the University of Birmingham that makes recycling rare earth magnets a real possibility.<\/p>\n

Now that idea has left the laboratory and been developed into a commercial plant at Tyseley, on the outskirts of the city.<\/p>\n

Prof Allan Walton, from the university, explained the plant was “the culmination of more than 20 years’ work and this facility has been developed by 40 or 50 people”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A magnet can disintegrate into non-magnetic powder<\/p>\n

So how do you recycle a magnet that sticks strongly to metal when you try to crush or chop it up?<\/p>\n

It turns out you can pass hydrogen over it and the magnet disintegrates into non-magnetic powder. <\/p>\n

In this new plant it can recover as much as two tonnes of powder from scrap every day.<\/p>\n

When we first came across this idea, it was a simple demonstration in a lab inside the university, recycling the magnets from old computer hard drives. <\/p>\n

The early equipment filmed by the BBC even used the drum from an old washing machine.<\/p>\n

A few years later, we went to see a much larger installation, which took up a two-storey hall, recycling bigger magnets from things like electric cars.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The plant can recover two tonnes of powder from scrap every day<\/p>\n

Now, the whole project has grown again to a proper commercial-sized outfit with an opening by Industry Minister Chris McDonald.<\/p>\n

Because not only are rare earth magnets important for technology, almost all of them come from China and that dependence makes governments a bit twitchy these days.<\/p>\n

McDonald outlined those concerns, saying: “If you’ve only got one shop to go to, you’re not going to get the best deal. So having our own supply is important.”<\/p>\n

At Tyseley, the team will not just be recovering rare earth materials from magnets, they will also then be making new magnets for use in new tech and equipment – in this case, neodymium iron boron magnets.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Prof Allan Walton said producing the magnets took a tenth of the energy used to manufacture brand new ones<\/p>\n

“It’s the first plant to manufacture magnets in the UK in 25 years,” according to Prof Walton. <\/p>\n

“And producing these magnets takes a tenth of the energy used to manufacture brand new ones.”<\/p>\n

It is not much of a leap to see these greener, cheaper magnets giving a real boost to innovative products from West Midlands companies in the future.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Prof Walton said powder was “squeezed back together, we heat it up and it re-forms a new magnet material”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Gregory-KumarScience, environment and rural affairs correspondent BBC An idea has gone from laboratory to a commercial plant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-428735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}