by cidaut | Nov 7, 2017 | Sin categoría
Last September in San Sebastian, the Remaghic Project partners held the 24 month meeting general assembly. During the last months many decisions have been taken on the best chain of processes to recycle rare earths and on the design of the currently manufactured facility to recycle Mg and produce the Remaghic magnesium alloy. Currently, casting tests with different alloying elements have been done, corrosion and mechanical testing campaigns are ongoing, and the project faces the last project year where the industrial validation and the LCA will highlight the results achieved.
The meeting took place on the 20th and 21st of September. During the first day, the meeting was focused on the last activities done to recycle rare earths from different residue streams (WP1), on the update of the alloy development (WP3), and on the industrial facility that has been designed and manufactured to enable magnesium foundries recycle in house their own scraps and drosses (WP4). Currently, the Remaghic Cosnortium is looking for partners to test this facility, if you are interested, contact us at remaghic@cidaut.es. The last part of the first day was dedicated to the LCA analysis of the different ongoing processes in the project.
The second project day was fully dedicated to the Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation work package. Now that results are on the table, Remaghic partners are making an effort to contribute with their knowledge on recycling processes to Europe’s scientific and manufacturing community. To mention one example, Cidaut presented the results and next steps for the Remaghic project at the International Magnesium Association European Committee Meeting last 25th of October held at Brunel University (BCAST) London. In November Remaghic project parntes will be also taking part at the23rd SETAC Europe LCA Case Studies Symposium with two posters respectively dedicated to rare earth elements recycling and magnesium recycling methodologies. The Symposium, organized by the International Life Cycle Academy will take place in Barcelona, meet us there!
by cidaut | Apr 12, 2017 | Sin categoría
Partners of the Remaghic project met at the European Commission the past 2nd of February to present the project status after eighteen months of research. The project so far has developed a magnesium recycling methodology for magnesium scrap and scum with the collaboration of CIDAUT with Grupo Antolín, in which recycling efficiencies of 80% have been achieved. This work done at laboratory level will be upscaled in the second half of the project to reach a TRL of 7.
A lot of effort in the Remaghic project has been devoted to the recycling rare earths. Different processes are featured in the project, from solvent extraction, hydrometallurgical treatments, thermal and pyrometallurgical treatments and molten salt extraction. These processes have been combined and intertwined to optimize efficiencies and yields and the work done on each selected residue stream will be soon presented at the European Rare Earth Resources (ERES) conference next May in Santorini, Greece by partners of the Remaghic Consortium Tecnalia, KU Leuven and Relight.
The involvement of the project end users has proven to be very important in the alloy requirement definition in order to help focus the rare earth recycling processes to the specific elements that have been selected to improve the recycled magnesium mechanical performance.
Finally, Life Cycle Analysis has endeavored to look at each of the processes and their environmental indicators. Merging different processes, at different technology readiness status, and balancing technical, economical and environmental indicators is a complex task coming ahead for this project in which the life cycle analysis and life cycle costing analysis will play an important role to guide the decisions that the project will need to take.
For more information on Remaghic, please visit http://www.remaghic-project.eu/
To know more about the ERES conference, please visit http://eres2017.eresconference.eu/
by cidaut | Apr 12, 2017 | Sin categoría
Last March 8th, the NEOHIRE consortium met in Brussels to kick-off the project. All partners discussed the details of the implementation of the work plan for the following three years of research.
NEOHIRE project (NEOdymium-Iron-Boron base materials, fabrication techniques and recycling solutions to HIghly REduce the consumption of Rare Earths in Permanent Magnets for Wind Energy Application) aims to research and develop new Permanent Magnet material technologies and solutions, in order to achieve a High Efficient Electric Power System based on highly optimized Wind Turbines with a strongly reduced dependence of Europe Access to Critical Raw Materials, especially rare earth elements (REE).
All partners introduced their companies to the EC Project Officer, highlighting their respective role in the project: AICHI, Fraunhofer LBF, INDAR, Kolektor, KU Leuven, Università degli Studi Firenze, University of the Basque Country, University of Birmingham and CIDAUT are coordinated by CEIT.
In this project, CIDAUT will lead WP3 “Permanent Magnet prototyping, modelling, and simulation in windpower generators”, being directly in charge of the magnetic and mechanical properties simulations. CIDAUT also cooperates in WP5 “Life-Cycle Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis of the developed solution” supporting UNIFI to calculate the LCA associated to the new magnet.
More info about the project can be read here.
by cidaut | Jun 9, 2016 | Sin categoría
More than 50 experts attended the final event.
The main results and conclusions obtained during MetalMorphosis were presented in Ghent on the 24th of February 2016. The event was hold in the Belgian Welding Institute facilities and more than 50 experts from different technology fields attended the event.
Every partner in the consortium presented the work done, the knowledge acquired and the next challenges to be faced. The main conclusion of the event was that MetalMorphosis project has been an important step forward in the consolidation of the hybrid joints metal-composite in the automotive sector.
Centimfe as project coordinator presented the main milestones covered by the project and the general targets achieved. Ideko and Cidaut focused their presentation on material selection, process optimization and product design. The joining technology was mainly described by Belgian Welding Institute and Poynting, while the life cycle assessment was explained by Stam.
Finally, each of the end users involved in the project presented their demonstrator. In the case of Tenneco, the bottom closing of a monotube shock absorber was used as a case study. The welded steel loop was therefore replaced by a composite part in PA66 with glass fibres produced by injection moulding. This solution has the advantage of producing lighter shock absorbers (15 % saving) while keeping the requirements for a structural part. The technology can be integrated easily in the manufacturing process, keeping the product at an acceptable cost for the market.
Tool Presse presented his hybrid solution (metal-composite) for a pedal brake with a 17% weight saving and important reduction on cost and production process time. The prototype presented was previously validated attending to the requirements defined during the project.
Regeneracija showed his frontal bumper manufactured in aluminium and CFRP. The manufacturing process has combined RTM with electromagnetic joining in order to obtain a 50% lighter component fulfilling all the requirements of this kind of component.
For more information please visit www.metalmorphosis.eu
by cidaut | Apr 8, 2016 | Materials
All partners of the REMAGHIC project (except Piaggio and Pininfarina, and the latter joined by webmeeting) gathered in Valladolid (Spain) to review the work done during the first six months of the project. During this period the main work has been focused on WP 1 and WP2, which are related with the recovery of REE and magnesium from industrial waste input. WP5 LCCA models development has already been kicked off during this time and Dissemination & Communication activities (WP6) and Management (WP7) will take place along all the project progress.
During the meeting a general revision of the status of the project was done. Each WP leader presented the work that had been developed, and any question or doubt was solved at the moment.
REMAGHIC meeting hold 24-25 February 2016 CIDAUT facilities.
As a complement to the project during this meeting, two workshops took place. The first one was planned to give the entire consortium a first approach of the work which is expected to be done by each partner in the WP5 (Life Cycle assessment of the process). This first workshop focused mainly on explaining why good quality information is really important for the success of the project. The second workshop was about the Risk Management of the project. This workshop had two parts, a theoretical one, and a practical session, in which all the partners worked actively to identify and classify all the risks related to WP1, WP3 and WP5.
During this meeting the consortium was able to visit CIDAUT facilities: on the first day meeting, the facilities related with the project (magnesium casting facilities, microstructure characterization laboratory and mechanical properties laboratory) were shown and on the second day a brief tour to show all the capabilities of the center was organized.
The REMAGHIC project was invited to the SPIRE Impact Workshop 2016
The European Commission has officially invited REMAGHIC to be present during the 2nd SPIRE Impact Workshop, on 21-22 April 2016 in Brussels. REMAGHIC will be one of the 16 projects that will be presented at the Session3: Efficient Sustainability and Circular Economy – Domain1: Recovery from Waste). If you want to know more about our research, contact us or meet us there and let’s discuss ideas together.
