Magnetism and Chemistry: A Technological Breakthrough in Magnetic Rare Earth Recycling
The Recycling Permanent Magnets: An Innovative Approach (REMMIA) project, coordinated by the CNRS at IPCMS, has recently been selected for funding under the European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder 2025 programme, which had an exceptionally low success rate of just 2.15%.
REMMIA brings together the academic expertise of three research laboratories from France, Ireland, and Sweden, alongside two start-ups based in France’s Grand Est region, whose participation is crucial for the project’s industrial validation. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the consortium will combine expertise in magnetism, electrochemistry, and hydrometallurgy to develop innovative solutions for recycling some of the most critical and least recycled materials in Europe—materials that are indispensable for the production of high- performance permanent magnets.
Magnetic rare earth elements are essential components of high-efficiency electric motors, which play a central role in the transition to a green economy. Their strategic importance is also increasing in the defense sector. However, the extraction and processing of key magnetic rare earths—praseodymium, neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium—remain major technological and environmental challenges. Current purification methods are both costly and resource-intensive. The REMMIA project aims to develop breakthrough technologies that dramatically simplify rare- earth separation and purification processes. The proposed innovations are expected to reduce environmental impacts by up to a factor of 100 while achieving recovery rates above 90% and purities exceeding 99%. This fundamental research will be conducted in close collaboration with a company specializing in the collection, recovery, and dismantling of end-of-life products, enabling validation on real industrial waste streams. The project will also benefit from the expertise of a second industrial partner specialized in process scale-up, facilitating the future deployment of these separation technologies at an industrial level.
Through REMMIA, we aim to contribute to environmentally responsible industrialization while developing strategic expertise that can strengthen the European Union’s geopolitical autonomy in a highly critical and strategically important field.
Contact : Alena Gradt, european project manager (alena.gradt@ipcms.unistra.fr)
Linkedin.com/company/remmia-unistra
Remmia.unistra.fr
