LG Electronics to Recover Rare Earth Magnets From Discarded Appliances

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A compressor (left) inside an air conditioner’s outdoor unit. LG Electronics said on the 27th it will run a pilot program with the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and other partners to recover and recycle rare-earth permanent magnets, a key mineral, from compressors at the disposal stage of discarded home appliances. LG Electronics

LG Electronics (066570.KS) is moving to recover permanent magnets containing rare earth elements from discarded home appliances and recycle them as industrial raw materials. The move widens the scope of resource recycling from appliance waste, which had been limited to iron, copper and aluminum, to rare earths, a critical mineral. The company aims to recover 1.6 tons of permanent magnets a year from about 40,000 discarded appliances.

LG Electronics said on the 27th that it signed a memorandum of understanding for a pilot project to recover waste permanent magnets from refrigerant compressors in discarded appliances with the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and E-Circulation Governance at its metropolitan-area resource circulation center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

Rare earth permanent magnets are a core material that drives the motors of compressors used in refrigerators and air conditioners. They are also widely used in electric vehicles and industrial motors. But their strong magnetic force has made them difficult to detach from scrapped compressors, so only some metals such as copper were recovered and most units were processed together with scrap iron.

LG Electronics solved the problem with demagnetization technology that eliminates a magnet’s magnetic force using a magnetic field. Magnets were previously separated by applying high heat, but the company is now applying a method that removes the magnetic force without a high-temperature process, allowing the magnets to be detached safely.

Artificial intelligence is also being used. Vision AI technology, which recognizes visual information, identifies the size and shape of a scrapped compressor, then precisely locates the permanent magnet inside and applies the optimal separation process. The technology is designed to raise recovery efficiency by adapting to compressor structures that differ from product to product.

“We will contribute to realizing a circular economy that recovers core materials from products at the end of their life and puts them back to use, and take the lead in building a foundation for the stable circular use of critical minerals in the future,” said Yang Hee-koo, head of the Production Innovation Center at LG Electronics’ Production Engineering Research Institute.