ėŽė§ íë A discarded permanent magnet is found inside the lower interior of the compressor, the black component, in an outdoor air conditioner unit. LG Electronics
LG Electronics has developed a technology that recovers rare-earth permanent magnets from discarded home appliances and reuses them as industrial resources. The company aims to expand recycling of discarded appliances beyond common metals such as iron, copper and aluminum to rare-earth elements, building a domestic circular system for critical minerals.
On the 27th, LG Electronics signed a business agreement with the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment and E-Circular Governance at the Capital Area Resource Circulation Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, for a pilot project to recover discarded permanent magnets from appliance compressors.
The core of the project is to separate rare-earth permanent magnets used in compressors in appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners at the disposal stage and reuse them as resources. Rare-earth elements are critical minerals widely used in advanced industries, including electric vehicles, industrial motors and home appliances. Because production is concentrated in a small number of countries, securing a stable supply chain has become increasingly important.
Until now, rare-earth permanent magnets inside discarded compressors have been difficult to separate because of their strong magnetic force. As a result, only some metals such as copper were recovered, while the rest, including the magnets, were mostly treated as scrap metal. To solve this problem, LG Electronics developed a demagnetization technology that uses magnetic fields to remove the magnets’ force. After the magnetic force is eliminated, the permanent magnets can be safely detached. In the past, heat treatment was mainly used to separate magnets. LG Electronics’ method uses magnetic fields without a high-temperature process, reducing energy use. It also minimizes heat-related deformation and performance loss, which can increase the recycling value of recovered magnets.
Artificial intelligence is also being used. LG Electronics uses Vision AI-based image analysis technology to recognize the size and shape of discarded compressors and precisely identify where the internal permanent magnets are located.
Through this pilot project, LG Electronics expects to recover about 1.6 tons of rare-earth permanent magnets annually from roughly 40,000 discarded appliances.
[Park Yoon-ye]
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
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permanent magnet
LG Electronics
compressor
discarded permanent magnet
home appliances
Ministry of Climate
Energy and Environment
pilot project
critical minerals