Description:FIELD OF INVENTION
[0001]Embodiment of the present invention relates to a process for recovery and enrichment of rare earth elements (REEs) from discarded neodymium-based permanent magnets. More particularly, the process involves a sequence of thermal, mechanical, and magnetic separation processes for selectively isolating REE-rich oxides without use of corrosive acids to provide environmentally friendly recycling of critical materials for reuse in high-performance applications such as electric motors, wind turbines, and electronic devices.

BACKGROUND
[0002]Rare earth elements (REEs), such as neodymium, dysprosium, and praseodymium, are critical raw materials widely used in advanced technologies including permanent magnets for electric motors, wind turbines, sensors, and consumer electronics. Neodymium-based permanent magnets (Nd2Fe14B), particularly those based on the Nd2Fe14B structure, exhibit high magnetic strength, coercivity, and remanence, making them indispensable in modern high-performance applicat , C , Claims:WE CLAIM:
1. A process for recovery and enrichment of rare earth elements (REEs) from discarded neodymium-based permanent magnets, the process comprising steps of:
collecting discarded neodymium-based permanent magnets;
mechanically processing the discarded neodymium-based permanent magnets to remove protective coatings;
demagnetizing the discarded neodymium-based permanent magnets followed by homogenizing in a nitrogen environment at a temperature of 850 °C for a predetermined duration to dissociate neodymium-based permanent magnets (Nd2Fe14B) structure into alpha-iron (a-Fe) grains to obtain homogenized magnets;
ball milling the homogenized magnets to obtain a uniformly distributed powder;
oxidizing the uniformly distributed powder at 850 °C for the predetermined duration to convert metal constituents into respective oxides, wherein the oxides comprise iron(III) oxide (Fe2O3), neodymium(III) oxide (Nd2O3), boron trioxide (B2O3), and dysprosium(III) oxide (Dy2O3);
reacting the oxides to obtain an oxidized po