Compiled by Walt Benecki, Terry Clagett & Stanley Trout, the 400-page “Permanent Magnets 2010-2020” report is, according to the authors,

“a professionally bound book, designed to be a resource for every sector of the global permanent-magnet industry, including producers, users, fabricators & distributors and industry suppliers. It is a “must have” for anyone seeking to understand today’s dynamics and planning for success in the ever-expanding global permanent-magnet industry.”

Terra Magnetica is one of just a couple of authorized resellers of the Report. To see more details on it, including the Table of Contents and ordering details, please click here.

Stan has been a successful consultant in the magnet industry for the past ten years, under the banner of his Spontaneous Materials consulting business. He previously worked for a number of magnet companies in the USA and even for Molycorp itself in a prior incarnation. Stan is therefore very well-qualified for his new role.

In addition to restarting the production of separated rare earth products from its Mountain Pass mine in California, a critical component of Molycorp’s business strategy is the production of rare-earth-based permanent magnets and magnet alloys. To date there has not been a lot of detail on this aspect of their game plan, beyond proposals to work with an unnamed third party magnet materials manufacturer.

The addition of Stan to the Molycorp team is a smart move on their part, and perhaps today’s announcement is the first in a series that will clarify the approach that the company plans to take in order to execute its strategy.

Congratulations Stan!

Notable among the grants was a $2.25 million grant to GE Global Research, of Niskayuna, NY, for a project titled ‘Transformational Nanostructured Permanent Magnets”.

According to the write up from the DoE, GE will

“develop next-generation permanent magnets that include lower content of critical rare-earth materials. GE will develop bulk nanostructured magnetic materials, resulting in a dramatic increase in performance over state-of-the-art magnets. The impact of these new magnets will be to increase the efficiency and power density of electric machines while reducing dependence on globally critical rare-earth minerals.”

GE claims that the production of such magnets will lead to growth in the hybrid vehicle and wind turbine generator markets. It is no secret that GE is involved in the latter industry, having recently acquired a business unit that produces permanent-magnet-based, direct-drive wind turbines.

According to GE’s project proposal, their project will focus on a goal of obtaining new magnet materials with a maximum energy product of at least 80 MGOe and with an 80% reduction in rare earth content. To achieve this aim, the research will focus on the development of nanostructured magnet materials, in order to “demonstrate for the first time a bulk exchange?spring nanocomposite permanent magnet”.

The maximum energy product of a magnetic material is a figure of merit used to compare the performance of one magnetic material to another. Currently, the highest such value for a commercially available permanent magnet hovers at around 55-57 MGOe, for magnets based on alloys of Nd-Fe-B. The maximum theoretical energy product for Nd-Fe-B magnet materials is 64 MGOe and so the GE research project, if successful, would be a real breakthrough. So-called exchange-spring magnets rely on finely tuned microstructures that contain special nano-sized grain mixtures of materials such as Nd-Fe-B and Fe.

What makes this award pretty interesting is that it is the first time in quite a while that GE has been publicly associated with research into permanent magnet materials. There is no mention in the news release from the DoE of any collaborating entities on the project, which raises the question of just how GE will staff and execute the project, in order to move the state of the art along, without formally collaborating with leading academic and research groups on the field.

This announcement follows on from the award earlier this year by ARPA-E, of $4.5 million to a consortium led by the University of Delaware, for a project titled, “High Energy Permanent Magnets for Hybrid Vehicles and Alternative Energy“. In addition to the similar goal of successfully producing nano-composite-based permanent magnets, the Delaware project will also look at completely new magnetic material compositions.

Apparently unlike the GE project, Delaware will be collaborating with a number of other groups including those at the University of Nebraska, Ames Lab / Iowa State University, Northeastern University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Electron Energy Corporation.

This Workshop will be held on the shores of the picturesque Lake Bled in Slovenia, and is the latest in a long series of similar events stretching back to the 1970s. Karl Strnat, the co-discoverer of the first generation of permanent magnets based on rare earths, organized the first Workshop at the University of Dayton, Ohio in 1974. Dr. Strnat worked at the US Air Force Research Laboratory, part of the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and it was there that he, Alden Ray and others undertook the research that led to the discovery the first RE-Cobalt magnetic compounds.

I’ve had the privilege and the pleasure of attending three prior Workshops, which are held every two years. I say without hesitation that the Workshop is the most important meeting for the permanent magnet community on the calendar. The attendees are a unique blend of folks from industry and academia, technical and non-technical, and drawn from all around the world. This year’s event is being hosted by the magnetics research group at the Josef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, a group with a distinguished track record of research and development in magnetic materials.

As a slowly developing postgraduate research student in magnetic materials at the University of Birmingham, I had the somewhat dubious honor of working as part of the security detail at the Workshop held at that University in 1994. I was also part of a musical “ensemble” during that meeting that passed into Workshop legend too, but that’s about all I’ll say on that.

What I will mention though, is that it was my attendance and participation at that Workshop in Birmingham in 1994, that led to my being introduced to the leading players of the industrial and academic sectors of the rare earth magnets industry. I made contact with one particular individual at that meeting, who would eventually go on to introduce me to my first employer after graduating in 1997.

At the Workshop in Slovenia next week, I will present an invited paper titled ‘Recent Developments in the North American Permanent Magnet Industry and its Supply Chain’. It was not without a considerable sense of satisfaction at being able to “close the circle”, that I discovered that the Chair of the session in which I’ll be presenting this paper, was none other than the gentleman I first met in 1994, who helped propel me into the commercial world of permanent magnets – Mr Reinhold Strnat, a distinguished member of the magnetics community in his own right, and a now long time friend and colleague.

The ability for young, wet-behind-the-ears postgraduate research students to present their work to crusty old professors and captains of industry alike, in a non-threatening, non-pretentious setting is a near-unique aspect of the Workshop series, and was certainly an essential part of my growth in the discipline. It is from meetings and interactions like these, that the future researchers, developers, engineers and scientists in the field of rare earths, permanent magnets and allied arts will be drawn. I am pleased to note that the attendance at the Workshop in Slovenia will be as high as ever – perhaps 150 attendees, representing all the research groups, companies and other organizations of importance to the rare earth permanent magnet industry.

Interestingly, this year will see a number of presentations from folks within the broader rare earths industry, including Jack Lifton, Gary Billingsley of Great Western Minerals, and others. I’m hoping to snag some interviews and Q & As with the various leading rare earth magnet researchers while in Bled. I look forward to being able to share that info and perhaps a few photos, on my return.

The new 3.0 MW direct drive permanent magnet generator wind turbine from Siemens (image courtesy of Siemens Energy)

There has been much interest in the development of direct drive systems in recent years, since the elimination of the gear box theoretically the turbine system more reliable.  What Siemens appears to have done is to take that a step further – by eliminating half of the components at the top of the tower, there is less maintenance for the service technicians to have to worry about.  This is good for onshore systems, but even more valuable for wind turbines that are to be located offshore, far from land. It also means, in theory, more uptime for each turbine, thus allowing them to produce electricity over wider intervals.

Siemens installed the first prototype of the SWT-3.0-101 at the beginning of December 2009 close to the town of Brande in Denmark. Siemens entered the wind energy business through the acquisition of the Danish company Bonus Energy A/S approximately five years ago, a company that had been in business since 1980, as Danregn Vindkraft. This company was a pioneer in the early days of recent interest in wind power, and was a logical acquisition for Siemens as it looked to enter the market. The Siemens Wind Power business unit is still headquartered in Brande. The permanent magnet generator is being produced by the Large Drives business unit within the Siemens Industry Sector.

The compact nature of the nacelle for the new wind turbine from Siemens means that it is easier to transport than other systems (image courtesy of Siemens Energy)

Siemens first tested direct drive systems in the form of two 3.6 MW concept turbines in July 2008, leading to the 3.0 MW prototype installed late last year. While Siemens acknowledges that they were not the first to market with a direct drive permanent magnet generator system, the company appears to have deliberately taken its time with the development of its own systems. In a news release from late last year, Mr. Stiesdal indicated that rushing to the market with immature technology was not an option for Siemens. While the nacelle contains new technology, the blades, rotor hub, tower and controller were developed from existing products. Full commercial launch of the new turbine through serial production, is expected to commence next year, with a number of systems being installed around the world in the meantime.

One comment from Siemens is worthy of note for the permanent magnet industry and its supply chain. In a promotional video that was released to coincide with the launch of the new turbine, Ernst Frendesen, Director of Global Sales and Proposals for Siemens said that the

“market demand that we expect on this machine will be extremely big and therefore for a period, we think that the market demand will outweigh the production capacity.”

Attempts to ascertain the specific amount of permanent magnet materials used in SWT-3.0-101 turbine design were declined by the company for reasons of confidentiality. It is clear, however, that Siemens is putting the permanent magnet industry [and indirectly, the rare earths supply chain] on notice.

Schematic of the new 3.0 MW direct drive permanent magnet generator wind turbine from Siemens (image courtesy of Siemens Energy)

Mr. Stiesdal has kindly agreed to do an interview with me on the SWT-3.0-101 wind turbine and its direct drive, permanent magnet-based drive system, which I will post to Terra Magnetica once completed, along with any other developments in the area of DD PMG turbines as they happen.

[last updated August 9, 2010, to correct text of Mr. Frendesen's quote from promotional video].

Over the past few days, Australia’s ABC Radio National broadcast not one, but two items on rare earth metals, to both of which I heartily recommend listening.

The first item was broadcast on the Breakfast program on Friday, and lasts a little over 6 minutes.  It’s an introductory piece on the subject, but spends significant time discussing the environmental issues surrounding rare earth production in Australia. You can listen to the piece on the program’s Rare Earths Metals segment Web page or by clicking below:

ABC Radio National Breakfast: Rare Earth Metals

The second piece, first broadcast on the Background Briefing program this past Sunday morning, lasts for over 45 minutes and is an comprehensive, in-depth study of the rare earth metals, their markets and associated supply chain, environmental and political issues.There is also a pretty decent-sized portion on rare earth permanent magnets and their applications, for which, in the interests of full disclosure, I was interviewed :-)

As producer and narrator Stan Correy says:

China currently produces about 95% of the world’s rare earths, which are metals which are essential to modern living and used all around us every day. In business it’s a volatile mix, with complex political alchemy for every government, including Australia.

The program features several interviews of a variety of individuals from a number of different sectors, in addition to yours truly.

You can listen to the piece on the Background Briefing Rare Earths and China program Web page or by clicking below:

ABC Radio National Background Briefing: Rare Earths and China

Stan did a great job in explaining what can be a difficult subject to convey.  He also included a link back to Terra Magnetica – so thanks, Stan, for that!

Oct. 27, 2009 – by Tracey Bryant – The University of Delaware has won a $4.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) to lead a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional research project to develop the next generation of high-performance permanent magnets.

Stronger magnets are essential for increasing the energy efficiency of electronics, automobiles, information technology, and communications systems in the 21st-century, and for supporting the development of hybrid/electric vehicles, wind turbines, environmentally friendly transportation systems, and new energy storage systems, among other applications.

The UD project is one of 37 selected nationwide by the agency, collectively totaling $151 million, which “have great potential to revolutionize the U.S. energy sector,” according to Shane Kosinski, ARPA-E’s acting deputy director. They represent the first round of projects funded under ARPA-E, which is receiving $400 million to deploy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

George Hadjipanayis, the Richard B. Murray Professor of Physics and chairperson of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Delaware, is the principal investigator on the project. He will coordinate a team of chemists, material scientists, physicists, and engineers from the University of Delaware, University of Nebraska, Northeastern University, and Virginia Commonwealth University; the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory at Iowa State University, in Ames, Iowa; and the Electron Energy Corporation in Landisville, Pa.

According to Hadjipanayis, the strongest permanent magnets today are made from an alloy of three elements: neodymium (Nd), iron (Fe), and boron (B). Hadjipanayis was one of the three researchers who discovered the Nd-Fe-B magnets in the early 1980s.

In the new project, he and his team will be working to identify new materials that will result in magnets twice as strong as those currently in existence.

“This is the first time that such a large concerted effort will be undertaken in the U.S. on the development of high-energy magnets that involves the best expertise available in our country on this type of materials,” Hadjipanayis said.

An article in the Sept. 11, 2009, edition of the journal Science reported that the demand for Nd-Fe-B magnets is growing at about 15 percent per year, for use in products ranging from magnetic resonance imaging machines, to cell phones, headphones, and even prototype magnetic refrigerators. Yet neodymium (Nd), which is a member of the rare earth metals on the periodic table of the elements, is growing increasingly scarce.

The UD-led team will explore three different routes over the three-year project, Hadjipanayis said. The first route will be to discover new materials in tertiary rare earth-transition metal-element X systems that have not yet been explored due to synthesis difficulties such as vapor pressure, high reactivity, toxicity, or their refractory nature. The second route will be to develop materials that are free of rare earth metals and stabilized by the addition of small non-magnetic atoms (Fe-Co-X); and the third route will be to use the bottom-up approach to develop high-energy nanocomposite materials consisting of a uniform and nanoscale mixture of high anisotropy hard (Nd-Fe-B) and high magnetization soft (Fe) magnetic phases.

“We hope our efforts will provide the fundamental innovations and breakthroughs which could have a major impact in re-establishing the United States as a leader in the science, technology, and commercialization of this very important class of materials,” Hadjipanayis said.

More than 3,600 concept papers were received in response to the first ARPA-E solicitation, from which the U.S. Department of Energy requested 300 full applications and ultimately selected 37 based on rigorous review and evaluation.

Funding for the projects is provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), also known as the federal stimulus package, which was enacted by Congress earlier this year.

Jack asks the questions: “why are the components being made in China? Can we do anything to cause them to be made in the USA?“.  He goes on to discuss the opacity of Chinese rare earth mining companies in terms of true cost structures, and how virtual all rare earth permanent magnets used in large scale wind turbines, probably originated in China.

Jack goes on to say:

These are the current consequences of the non-production of any but trivial amounts of the rare earths outside of China, combined with the economic thinking of America’s business and government elites; the former want to maximize profit at any cost, the latter want revenue from the taxes on those profits.

The rest of Jack’s article talks about the issues of investing in hard rock mining, and rare earth mining in particular, in order to exploit the significant natural resources available to us in the USA and Canada. he says that:

Chinese and Japanese companies are now looking at these North American resources for the benefits of the economies of their home countries. They can only do this so long as North America does not any longer have a domestic supply chain to refine, produce metals and alloys, produce components, and assemble those components into end use products.

The article is a good primer on the present problems facing this industry, and how they could impact rare earth permanent magnet supply in the future. You can read Jack’s article here.

]]> http://www.terramagnetica.com/2009/11/12/the-problems-of-sourcing-wind-turbines-and-rare-earth-metals-from-china/feed/ 0 http://www.terramagnetica.com/2009/11/08/dmtc-hosts-2nd-annual-strategic-materials-conference/ http://www.terramagnetica.com/2009/11/08/dmtc-hosts-2nd-annual-strategic-materials-conference/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:23:41 +0000 Gareth Hatch http://www.terramagnetica.com/?p=747 The Defense Metals Technology Center [DMTC], based in North Canton, Ohio, is hosting its 2nd Annual Strategic Materials Conference [SMC] during Feb 1-2, 2010 in Cleveland, Ohio.

According to the DMTC Web site:

The Defense Metals Technology Center (DMTC) was formed in January, 2007 in order to establish an industrial base capable of affordably producing such strategic metals. The organization addresses the identified needs of the U.S. Military in the development and manufacture of vital defense materials.

The DMTC indicates that the first SMC, held in April of last year, involved more than 110 participants from the USA and abroad.  The DMTC Web site goes on to say:

Building on the success of the inaugural Strategic Materials Conference in April 2009, the Defense Metals Technology Center will convene SMC 2010. This event will focus principally on rare earth metals, building on the well-received panel discussion on high performance magnets and a Rare Earth Metals Strategic Sourcing Forum to be sponsored by the DMTC in November 2009.

Unlike the first event in this series, which was invitation-only, the DMTC has apparently opened attendance at this meeting to anyone that registers.  More details on the event can be found at the SMC Web site.

Held every two years, the Workshop was inaugurated in 1974 by Karl Strnat, in Dayton, Ohio, and has been a success ever since. I have no hesitation in saying that, in my opinion, it is the most important technical / scientific meeting on the calendar for anyone involved in the science, engineering, procurement and production of rare earth permanent magnets.  It’s always a great mix of formal and informal sessions and activities, and there is a unique, friendly atmosphere that I’ve not encountered at many such meetings.

In the Call for Abstracts, Professor Spomenka Kobe, Workshop Chair, and Dr. Boris Saje, Workshop Co-Chair, said:

In order that we can begin to schedule talks and posters, we would like to invite you to submit one-page abstracts describing your latest research findings. These abstracts should be sent as an e-mail attachment to REPM10@ijs.si, no later than Monday, 1 February 2010, indicating a preference for oral or poster presentation.

The Organizing Committee is interested in abstracts covering any area of rare earth permanent magnets, but they are particularly interested to receive suggestions for presentation on:

• Markets & Raw Materials: Current Status and Future Trends
• Processing Techniques
• Thin-film Magnets
• Magnet Applications
• High-Temperature Magnets
• Nanocrystalline / Nanocomposite and Bulk Amorphous Magnets
• Magnetic Modelling
• Recent Advances in Structural Analysis Techniques
• Progress Towards Textured Nanocomposites
• Coercivity and Intrinsic Physical Properties
• MAGMAS Materials and Devices
• Non-Rare-Earth PMs (excluding oxides)
• RE-TM with other properties, for example, magnetostriction, magnetocalorics, magnetic shape memory
• Magnetism and Nanotechnology

Once the abstracts have been accepted, the deadline for the submission of papers will be Monday, May 3, 2010. This deadline will be strictly enforced, because one of the nice traditions of the Workshop series is that the Proceedings of the meeting are available to attendees when they arrive at the meeting.  Having been involved in the organization of the Birmingham REPM Workshop in 1994, I can tell you that it is no mean feat putting these Proceedings together in such a short period of time – dealing with that many academics and other “busy” people is akin to the herding of a large quantity of particularly independent cats!

The organizers will send out further information on the submission of papers and logistical details with acceptance notifications for the abstracts on Friday, February 26, 2010.

The REPM10 Call for Abstracts goes on to say:

Workshop attendees who submit a paper will be required to pay their reduced-rate Workshop registration fee of €620 (€300 for students) by [Monday, May 3, 2010]. For those people who register later the regular rate will be €750 (€400). Registration fee for accompanying persons will be only €150.

The Workshop fee includes registration for the scientific sessions, a copy of the Workshop Proceedings, a welcome reception on [Sunday, August 29, 2010], a lunch and coffee breaks during each day of the Workshop, the Workshop Dinner, as well as evening activities.

You can get further details from the Workshop webpage at http://nano.ijs.si/repm10.htm – see you there!