A circular economy approach for recycling Electric Motors in the end-of-life Vehicles: A literature review

Increasing concerns over climate change have led to global decarbonisation efforts, in the form of new legislation, to phase out the sale of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. As a result, the transition to electrified powertrain vehicles as the mode of transportation has never been greater. Electric motors (EMs), serving as the pivotal component of e-mobility, have gained much attention by policy makers and economic experts concerning the supply chain of raw materials needed for manufacturing. Permanent magnets (PMs), including rare earth elements (REEs), account for 40 to 60 % of the total EM cost. Given the importance of these materials to the e-mobility efforts, there has been a great impetus by leading economies to mitigate supply chain instability and mining operation constraints, by identifying and establishing a sustainable supply source through circular economy strategies. Although extensive studies on REEs recovery, via various techniques, have been undertaken by the research community, there remain underlying concerns over feed source, quality and technical challenges surrounding the retrieval of PM via a functional disassembly approach, all of which are yet to be elucidated. The present study serves to highlight state-of-the-art recycling of EMs from EoL electrified vehicles using a circular economy approach.