Resilient and sustainable critical raw materials REE supply chains for the e-mobility and renewable energy ecosystems and strategic sectors (REESilience)
Europe relies entirely on other countries for the rare earth magnets that power its electric vehicles and wind turbines. These magnets are a small but critical component—the market for them is relatively small, yet the downstream leverage is enormous, with the mobility business alone expected to grow substantially and support millions of jobs. Despite being a world leader in manufacturing electric motors, Europe has no domestic control over the rare earth supply chain, from mining to refining, and China holds a monopoly at every stage. European magnet production capacity is underutilised and mostly serves niche applications, while finished magnets increasingly arrive already embedded in imported motors and generators. The REESilience project will categorise rare earths by geographic location, chemical composition, and ethical and sustainability indicators, then build a production system that reduces dependence on non-European economies. A newly-developed software tool will calculate optimum mixing ratios to maintain high product quality while maximising the use of secondary materials. Combined with improved technologies for alloy production and powder preparation, this will increase the proportion of recycled materials in magnet manufacturing, cutting waste, environmental damage, and energy consumption linked to virgin production.
View original technical description
Rare Earths (RE) are crucial materials for Europe's successful green and digital transition, thus classified as highly critical. The market for RE magnets itself is relatively small - about €6.5 billion - however its downstream leverage is enormous: the mobility business in the EU27 alone is expected to grow to about €500 billion by 2030, with 6 million jobs. While being a world leader in the manufacturing of e.g. electric motors, the EU27 is fully import-dependent along the entire value chain of RE magnet materials. Despite a growing market, European magnet production capacity is underutilised and tends to serve specialised niche applications. In addition, RE magnets are increasingly imported as part of motors and generator assemblies and products. The main reasons for these developments are that China has a monopoly in the RE supply chain across all stages from mining to refining. To overcome this issue, REEsilience will categorise RE for geographic locations, quantities, chemical composition, ethical and sustainable indicators, ramp-up scenarios, and pricing, considering all value streams from virgin to secondary material. It will build a production system that ensures a resilient and sustainable supply chain for RE as critical raw materialsfor the e-mobility, renewable energy and furtherstrategic sectorsin Europe with less dependencies on nonEuropean economies. A newly-developed software tool will determine optimum mixing ratios to ensure consistently high product quality with maximum secondary materials for high-tech applications. Combined with new and improved technologies for alloy production and powder preparation, especially of secondary materials, the yield and stability of processes will be further enhanced, allowing further augmentation of the proportion of secondary materials in RE PM production, reducing at the same time waste, environmental damage, and consumption of energy linked with virgin production
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know