Consortium
The MAGELLAN consortium, coordinated by Orano, spanning 8 countries across Europe, brings together material scientists, designers, manufacturers, recyclers, and end-users with a firm target to engineer a European value chain solution for EVTMs
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With leading academic partners and research institutes in the field of magnet and EVTM material design, manufacturing and recycling, the project will improve magnet production and recyclability.
Industrial partners focus on EoL product collection, dismantling and recovery of PMs, design and production of PMs and use of PMs in EVTMs.
MAGELLAN SMEs contribute with business planning and LCA/LCC expertise and EIT RM plays a pivotal role in clustering with European initiatives on related topics.
Orano (ORA)
Description
ORA is a leading international group and a key player in the nuclear energy sector. With 17,000 employees worldwide, the group is committed to meeting the world’s energy challenges on a daily basis, by helping deliver plentiful, safe, low-carbon and competitive electricity. ORA provides all the skills necessary for the success of a project in terms of quality, cost and on-time delivery.
ORA ensures compliance with the highest standards of safety and security. Moreover, ORA takes on complete turnkey projects, handling everything from the engineering to delivery of equipment and completion of works.
Role in MAGELLAN
ORA plays a central role in the project as coordinator of the consortium and as a technical leader.
ORA will contribute to defining market and end application targets for magnets, engage in production and explore innovative magnet improvement strategies. ORA will lead the upscaling efforts of magnet manufacturing and recycling and demonstrate the developed processes on a pre-industrial pilot line.
ORA is also involved in tasks related to responsible sourcing of rare earth elements (REE). This includes a detailed review of collection schemes and material flow analysis for EoL products containing high-grade HREE magnets.
ORA collaborates with ULG, COM, TSR, and EIT RM, providing input on compliance with the project’s requirements and anticipating new trends in collection schemes.
Magneti Ljubljana (MAG)
Description
MAG is a European manufacturer of permanent metallic magnets, bonded magnets and magnetic systems with a long-lasting tradition, since 1951. We are a development and market oriented company characterised by financial stability and business success.
Through innovation and business excellence we continue to fulfill our customers’ demands and aim to create a working environment that encourages the development of our employees and the company as a whole in a sustainable and responsible manner. Our vision is to become a global manufacturer in the global market for permanent metallic magnets and magnetic systems. Our aim is to fulfill our customers’ demands and expectations by focusing on the development of technologically advanced products and processes.
Role in MAGELLAN
MAG plays a pivotal role in the project’s manufacturing processes, by producing powder batches and conduct injection tests with existing moulds, evaluating the viability of the manufacturing process.
MAG will also deal with grain boundary diffusion of the magnets and participate in the demonstration of the Magellan solution on a pre-industrial pilot line.
Centro Ricerche FIAT (CRF)
Description
Established in 1978 and headquartered in Orbassano (Turin) with additional branch sites across Italy, CRF serves as a central hub for research endeavours within FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles).
The primary mission of CRF is multifaceted: to pioneer and transfer cutting-edge innovations in powertrains, vehicle systems, materials, processes, and methodologies, leveraging its innovation expertise to enhance the competitiveness of FCA products. CRF collaborates with a pan-European network encompassing industry and academia. This collaboration extends to key public and private stakeholders in sustainable mobility, with a specific focus on industrializing research outcomes for the benefit of the automotive sector.
Role in MAGELLAN
CRF will be focusing on magnet qualification, application requirements, and integration into Electric Vehicle Traction Motors (EVTM).
Provide measurements of magnetic performance specifically, temperature and time stability assessments. CRF will help at defining the application requirements, including vehicle performances, design specifications, and system integration details and will investigate magnet integration in a production EVTM, and retrofitting PIM magnets into existing CRF rotors. CRF will also deliver EVTMs for the dismantling activities of the project.
BLC – The Battery Lifecycle Company GmbH (BLC)
Description
Your Expert for the Complete Battery Life Cycle. BLC is a trusted partner for sustainable and efficient battery solutions. From battery processing to raw material recovery, they provide a complete value chain in collaboration with industry-leading partners.
As a joint venture between TSR and Rhenus, BLC brings together decades of experience in recycling and logistics, offering holistic solutions that prioritise both sustainability and cost-effectiveness in battery recycling.
Role in MAGELLAN
BLC plays a key role in the MAGELLAN project by supplying secondary raw materials, specifically REE PMs recovered from the dismantling of End-of-Life Vehicles and e-waste.
BLC will also develop and document dismantling protocols, while assessing the costs associated with extracting PMs from various sources, including EVTMs, e-bikes, and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).
Comet Traitements S.A. (COM)
Description
COM is an innovative high-growth company processing and recycling Shredder Residues (SR), the by-product of the shredding of metallic wastes from Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment, EoL vehicles, metal scraps and new waste feedstock like EoL PV panels.
COM has currently developed & industrialised no fewer than 8 innovative post-shredder separation and recycling processes for the recovery of non-ferrous metals, plastics, minerals, iron oxides, critical raw materials, etc. This enabled COM to build up in Belgium and abroad, sustainable supply chains of secondary raw materials, meet EU targets on recovery rates and secure its reputation as an industry leader.
Role in MAGELLAN
COM will contribute by delivering a batch of rotors from their e-bike dismantling activities, emphasising in the presence of HREE PM.
COM will continue the development and documentation of dismantling protocols, evaluating costs down to the PM rotor across various streams. COM will conduct test campaigns to validate the efficiency of PM extraction from rotors through its thermo-mechanical technique on different rotor designs.
Commissariat à I’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA)
Description
CEA is the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à I’Energie Atomique et aux Energies alternatives).
Based on historical competences developed on powder metallurgy for the French electronuclear industry, CEA is involved in projects dealing with net-shape forming of different kinds of materials by means of advanced processing techniques, like Powder Injection Moulding (PIM). Widely acknowledged as an expert in its areas of skill, the CEA is actively involved in the European Research Area and its international presence is constantly growing.
Role in MAGELLAN
CEA will be contributing to the production of alloy batches from recycled magnets through strip casting. Their involvement extends to processes such as hydrogen decrepitation, jet milling, and mixing to create fine microcrystalline powders.
CEA will be systematically optimising process parameters for sintering, annealing, and post-sinter annealing, aiming to achieve magnets with optimal properties. CEA will also upscale the production of magnets by Powder Injection Moulding (PIM) and will be instrumental in synthesizing alloys, defining feedstock formulations, exploring recycling of by-products, and designing the process flow for sintered magnet production. CEA will also contribute to life-cycle studies in collaboration with Lomartov.
IFP Energies nouvelles (IFPEN)
Description
IFPEN is a research and training player in the fields of energy, transport and the environment. Technological innovation aiming at supporting the development of new energy transition sectors is central to its four strategic activities: climate, environment-circular economy, renewable energies, sustainable mobility and responsible oil and gas.
As part of the public-interest mission IFPEN focuses on:
- Providing solutions to take up the society challenges in terms of energy and climate, transition towards sustainable mobility and emergence of a more diversified energy mix.
- Creating value and jobs by supporting European economic activity and competitiveness of related industrial sectors.
An integral part of IFPEN, engineering school “IFP-School” prepares future generations to take up these challenges.
IFPEN contributes to the creation of wealth and jobs by supporting the competitiveness of industrial players and fostering the economic development of mobility, energy and eco-industry sectors. IFPEN’s model is based on the transfer to industry of developed technologies by its researchers.
Role in MAGELLAN
IFPEN is involved in magnet qualification, specifically measuring magnetic performances. IFPEN will follow requirements and EVTM specifications to define EVTM energetics, rotor designs as well as inverter and software requirements.
IFPEN will deal with the integration of recycled PM in existing production traction motors for EVTM currently in production vehicles by optimising the rotor design. Also, IFPEN will prepare the inverter and controller for EVTMs and validate the new rotor in endurance testing. IFPEN will conduct extensive testing on an electric powertrain test bench and contribute at establishing recommendations for the design of magnets and EVTMs to facilitate dismantling, labelling, and valorisation of EoL magnets.
Université de Liège (ULG)
Description
The University of Liège hosts 25,000 students and employs 5,500 staff members, providing a range of 38 bachelor’s, 212 master’s, and 68 advanced master’s programs. The GeMMe group at the university consists of 35 engineers and technicians, focusing on Geometallurgy, Minerals Engineering, and Extractive Metallurgy.
Their four main areas of innovation are mineral characterization, smart sorting, physical pre-processing, and hydrometallurgy. The group actively participates in various research and innovation projects, with a notable emphasis on transferring know-how from the mining sector to landfill and urban mining. A key recent focus involves the recycling of metals from complex end-of-life products.
Role in MAGELLAN
ULG plays a key role in recycling of EoL HREE-rich PMs. Firstly, to develop characterisation protocols and specification sheets for qualifying scraps PM materials for various recycling options.
Secondly, by conducting test campaigns to validate the efficiency of PM extraction through its thermo-mechanical technique on different rotor designs with the benefit of providing feedback to the EVTM designer (IFP). The technique will be adapted for an optimum interfacing with the MAGELLAN short-loops #2 and 3. Regarding the validation of sustainability and responsibility of the MAGELLAN solution for PMs, ULG is involved with the evaluation of responsible sourcing of HREE from EoL products as well as from the primary sector.
Fundacion Tecnalia Research & Innovation (TEC)
Description
TEC is the largest centre of applied research and technological development in Spain, a benchmark in Europe and a member of the Basque Research and Technology Alliance. They collaborate with companies and institutions to improve competitiveness, people’s quality of life and achieve sustainable growth.
Their mission is to transform technological research into prosperity. Tecnalia works with an increasingly strategic business relationship model based on trust, collaboration, and a shared technological approach, whereby their main scopes of action are smart manufacturing, digital transformation, energy transition, sustainable mobility, health and food, urban ecosystem and circular economy.
Role in MAGELLAN
TEC plays a key role in the optimization and scale up of the magnet to alloy short loop. TEC will continue the developments of HPTP melting of PM scraps concentrates in order to maximise the proportion of REE reporting to the metallic bath.
For the optimisation of the HPTP melting operations, TEC will use scrap PM which they will source from the existing market. TEC will also be testing the induction vacuum melting of the produced ingots.
Technische Universität Darmstadt (TUDa)
Description
The Technical University of Darmstadt is a synonym for excellence in fundamental and applied sciences. TUDa’s cutting-edge research is grouped in three fields: Energy and Environment, Information and Intelligence, Matter and Materials.
Our international team at Functional Materials lead by Prof. Oliver Gutfleisch conducts fundamental and applied materials research for the fields of energy conversion, mobility, cooling, medicine and robotics as well as hydrogen liquefaction and storage. The focus is on advanced magnetic materials, encompassing their synthesis, processing, and property characterization. We are especially concerned with the criticality of technology metals and the design of materials and devices for circularity from the very beginning.
Role in MAGELLAN
Magnet recycling and improving magnetic properties using the two-powder method as well as grain boundary diffusion process to achieve the best magnet performance with minimised critical rare earth elements.
Furthermore, TUD will design compositions with reduced critical rare earth elements by using more common REE such as La and Ce instead of Nd, while minimising the HREE (Dy, Tb) content and produce near-net-shape nanocrystalline magnets.
Geologian Tutkimuskeskus (GTK)
Description
The Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) is one of the world´s leading organizations on the assessment and sustainable use of geological resources. GTK works as a confidential partner to industry in developing sustainable solutions that both reduce environmental impacts and enhance profitability.
Role in MAGELLAN
GTK will be involved in tasks related to responsible sourcing of Rare Earth Elements (REE) from both the primary and secondary sectors.
GTK will focus on exploring synergies between the recycling and primary mining sectors and contribute to comprehensive analysis of the current state of responsible sourcing by addressing crucial aspects such as extraction methods, traceability, landfill waste, and non-technological barriers, considering relevant directives like IED, WEEE, ELV, and Batteries.
LOMARTOV SL (LOM)
Description
LOM is a Spanish environmental engineering and consultancy firm with a focus on fostering innovative and circular solutions. Their approach is multidisciplinary and holistic, incorporating elements such as eco-design, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), circular economy modelling, carbon footprint analysis, environmental communication management, and adherence to regulatory compliance.
Role in MAGELLAN
LOM will calculate the environmental impacts associated with the entire recycling process with an LCA study and will also perform a Life Cycle Cost (LCC) study comparing the economic impacts of the new recycling process with the current scenario.
RTD TALOS LIMITED (TALOS)
Description
TALOS mission is to offer high quality services with commitment and consistency, in order to enhance and reinforce the competitiveness of Cypriot enterprises, through the promotion of innovation, technology transfer, utilisation of research outcomes, development of links with research institutions, exploitation of opportunities for financing and assistance for utilisation of development programmes.
The Quality Guarantee of all the projects that are undertaken is a fundamental concern of the company.
Role in MAGELLAN
TALOS will apply their extensive experience from the dissemination and exploitation of research results from various EU and nationally funded projects to maximise the outreach and impact of MAGELLAN project.
Visit Partner WebsiteEIT RawMaterials GmbH (EIT RM)
Description
EIT RM is a key European actor established in 2015 to advance Europe’s transition into a sustainable economy. EIT RM overarching mandate is to support securing the supply of critical raw materials to the European industry by driving innovation along the raw materials value chain. EIT RM builds on the world’s largest network of partners in raw materials and advanced materials.
EIT RM provides a collaborative environment for disruptive and breakthrough innovations by connecting more than 300 partners from industry, academia, research, and investment. It also invests in the future generation of innovators for the raw materials sector through initiatives ranging from the education of school students to higher qualifications for industry professionals.
EIT RM is an Innovation Community within the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
Role in MAGELLAN
EIT RM brings to the project a network of experts along the whole value chain of raw materials. EIT RM will support the identification of economic and non-technological barriers.
EIT RM will provide a collaborative environment in the field of PM recycling by clustering innovation projects from industry, academia and research and a regional knowledge of the EIT RM ecosystem.