One of the main goals of REE4EU exploitation activities was to maximise its impact to ultimately contribute to the further implementation and scalability of the technologies developed within the project.
On 24th April 2019, REE4EU project held its first Exploitation Workshop “Europe’s Closed-Loop Permanent Magnet Recycling Process at Pilot Scale” in Brussels. The aim of the Workshop was to set out the most relevant results of the project, while connecting relevant stakeholders to discuss and compare about the market potential of the project in different countries, including US, Japan and China.
The workshop was attended by around 40 partners and stakeholders from noticeable companies and organizations. It included presentations from the Consortium, the EC, and the invited speaker Prof Okabe (University of Tokyo).
The final session consisted in a Panel Discussion with Stakeholders from Elkem (Norway), Urban Mining Company (US), DG Grow (EU), REEtec (Norway), and Prof Okabe (Tokyo). In addition, a questionnaire was distributed to the attendees to collect their feedback on the topics discussed during the event.
The results of the workshop helped to identify the potential of the technologies developed within the REE4EU project of being introduced into the market, the main barriers and limitations to be considered, and the main actions that need to be taken to achieve the process scaling-up and its market implementation. Finally, discussions were followed-up in order to achieve the development of a commercial REE4EU unit.
