Ionic Recovery has developed a novel recycling technology process to recover rare earth elements (REEs) from small car parts such as sensors, actuators and speakers. These components often contain powerful neodymium magnets, but because they are small and embedded in resin, they are usually discarded when cars are scrapped. The new process turns this hidden waste stream into a valuable resource. The process compliments existing market leading short loop recycling processes and tackles the complex REE streams that is currently untapped and unrecovered. The project focuses on using these materials to support other critical sectors currently highly dependent on imported REE.

The UK needs a supply of critical metals for key high tech industries and to support the green transition. Low cost Ionic liquids represent a highly selective method to enable the recovery of critical and Rare Earth Elements (REE). These metals are vital for magnets and critical sub components of a wide range of magnet industrial products - electrical motors and generators for cars and wind turbines are a good example. Ionic Metals focuses on the selective recovery of REE and critical metals from a wide range of waste electrical and consumer electronic products to deliver high quality and purity REE for reuse in magnets and critical electronic products enhancing the UK security of supply.