Separation and recovery of dysprosium using membrane solvent extraction process (MSX)

diagram of membrane solvent extraction separation and recovery process

This CMI-funded research was conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Achievement:

  • Dysprosium (Dy) is an essential component (1-8 wt.%) of almost all types of REE permanent magnets due to its very specific properties such as coercivity, high temperature tolerance and corrosion resistance
  • Quality magnet materials demand a minimum 99.5% Dy purity
  • Demonstrated recovery of 100% pure Dy from mixed oxides recovered from scrap magnets using MSX process

Significance and Impact:

  • This pure Dy can be added to NdPr oxide mixture to meet specified end-user requirements
  • Compared with other separation techniques, MSX offers lower capital and operating cost, and low energy consumption

Details and Next Steps:

Increase Dy recovery; improve process efficiency

Patent:

Bhave, et al., US Provisional Application Serial No. 62/718,433, 2018.