MOU signed with Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy and E-Cycle Governance

Recycling scope to expand from iron and copper to rare-earth minerals

LG Electronics signed an MOU Thursday for a pilot project to recover rare-earth permanent magnets from compressors in discarded home appliances for recycling. Shown is a compressor inside an air conditioner outdoor unit (left). The company plans to extract spent permanent magnets located at the bottom of the compressor's interior. [LG Electronics] LG Electronics signed an MOU Thursday for a pilot project to recover rare-earth permanent magnets from compressors in discarded home appliances for recycling. Shown is a compressor inside an air conditioner outdoor unit (left). The company plans to extract spent permanent magnets located at the bottom of the compressor’s interior. [LG Electronics]

LG Electronics has developed technology to recover rare-earth permanent magnets from discarded home appliances and return them to industrial use, expanding its recycling scope beyond the iron, copper and aluminum that have traditionally been the focus of appliance recovery efforts.

The company signed an MOU Thursday with the Ministry of Climate, Environment and Energy and E-Cycle Governance at the Metropolitan Area Resource Circulation Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, launching a pilot project to recover spent permanent magnets from refrigerant compressors in discarded appliances.

The project centers on separating rare-earth permanent magnets from compressors — a key component in refrigerators and air conditioners. Until now, the strong magnetic force inside compressors made separation impractical, so only some metals such as copper were recovered while most of the material was processed as scrap iron.

LG Electronics developed a proprietary demagnetization technology that uses a magnetic field to neutralize the magnets’ force. Unlike conventional heat-treatment methods that apply high temperatures to separate the magnets, the new approach reduces energy consumption and minimizes heat-induced changes to the magnets’ physical properties.

The process also employs vision AI. The AI identifies the size and shape of each spent compressor, precisely locates the permanent magnet inside and applies an optimized separation process tailored to each product type.

Through the pilot project, LG Electronics expects to recover about 1.6 metric tons of rare-earth permanent magnets annually from roughly 40,000 discarded appliances. The recovered magnets are to be used in developing raw-material processing technology for producing new magnets.

Rare-earth elements are critical minerals used across advanced industries — from electric vehicles and industrial motors to home appliances — and recycling technology that draws on discarded products is drawing attention as an alternative way to strengthen supply chain stability.

“We will continue to build our technological capabilities in resource recycling, contribute to realizing a circular economy by recovering and reusing key materials from end-of-life products, and take a leading role in establishing a stable foundation for the circular use of critical minerals in the future,” said Yang Hee-gu, head of the Production Innovation Center at LG Electronics’ Production Engineering Research Institute.

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