Life cycle inventory of samarium-cobalt permanent magnets, compared to neodymium-iron-boron as used in electric vehicles

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:286

Article

Orefice, Martina²  Sprecher, Benjamin³  Onal, Mehmet Ali Recai²  Herraiz, Enrique⁴  Dewulf, Wim⁵  Van Acker, Karel^1,6 

[1] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Dept Mat Engn, Kasteelpk Arenberg 44, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

[2] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Dept Chem, Celestijnenlaan 200, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

[3] Leiden Univ, Inst Environm Sci CML, Einsteinweg 2, NL-2333 CC Leiden, Netherlands

[4] Univ Birmingham, Sch Met & Mat, Birmingham B15 2TT, W Midlands, England

[5] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Dept Mech Engn, Celestijnenlaan 300, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

[6] Katholieke Univ Leuven, Res Ctr Econ & Corp Sustainabil, Kasteelpk Arenberg 44, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium

关键词: Cobalt;    Electric motors;    Life cycle inventory;    Rare earth elements;    Permanent magnets;    Life cycle assessment;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.125294

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Electric vehicles are sometimes marketed unambiguously as low-carbon technologies; however, they often contain less 'clean' ingredients, such as rare earth permanent magnets. In fact, high-performance permanent magnets in electric vehicles often use neodymium. Alternatively, more costly samarium cobalt magnets can be used. In this paper, life cycle assessment is used to compare the primary production routes of both neodymium-iron-boron and samarium-cobalt magnets in terms of environmental impact. For primary production of samarium-cobalt magnets, this is the first detailed life cycle inventory published to date. In addition, we provide an updated life cycle assessment of neodymium-iron-boron, expanded with recent literature and some primary industry data. We conclude that production of samarium-cobalt is not preferable in terms of environmental impact, from a cradle-to-gate perspective. A sensitivity analysis and uncertainty analysis show that while there are uncertain parameters in both studies, the uncertainty range tends to be slightly higher for samarium cobalt. (c) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free