Going from Rare to Plentiful
With Rare Earth Elements (REEs), a little goes a long way.
REEs are a group of seventeen chemical elements on the periodic table, including the fifteen lanthanides along with scandium and yttrium. Due to their unique chemical and physical properties, these materials are utilized in a variety of technologies, including computers and hybrid car batteries. Additionally, only small quantities are required for their effective use.
There’s just one problem.
“REE material supply chains are largely dominated by other countries and regions, which places the ability to source domestically at risk during economic or political crises,” said Brandon Grainger, associate professor and Eaton Faculty Fellow of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. “As we make the shift toward electrified transportation, which rely on magnets made from REEs, we need to find native alternatives that reduce supply chain risks which can be important both economically and in terms of national defense.”
Through Pitt’s Advanced Magnetics for Power and Energy Developed (AMPED) Consortium and funding through an SBIR grant from the Department of Energy, Grainger and Paul Ohodnicki, associate professor of mechanical engineering and material sciences and R.K. Mellon faculty fellow at Pitt, are studying the performance of manganese bismuth to replace REEs. By using ANSYS MotorCAD and Optislang, a simulation software helping to aid the optimization of these machines, Grainger and Ohodnicki can optimize electric motors and show the capabilities of these new magnets.
“We’re getting promising results,” Ohodnicki said. “We still have obstacles, including the manufacturing of these magnets and scaling them to deliver the required power output of these motors. We’re working with small businesses to make production a reality.”
Their work in replacing REEs was recently discussed in an article from IEEE Spectrum called, “How to Build EV Motors Without Rare Earth Elements.”