The Future Technical Route Of Permanent Magnet Motor Tends To The Development Direction Of Less Use Of Heavy Rare Earths And More Use Of Light Rare Earths?

The future technical route of permanent magnet motor tends to the development direction of "less use of heavy rare earths and more use of light rare earths"?

In the global electric drive of new energy vehicles, permanent magnet motors account for nearly 90%. Among them, the addition of dysprosium, terbium and other heavy rare earth permanent magnets, high magnetic energy product and high coercivity, the corresponding rare earth permanent magnet motor has a series of advantages such as small size, light weight, high efficiency, good characteristics and is highly respected.However, due to the small reserves of heavy rare earths in rare earth mines, with the popularity of new energy electric vehicles, the large-scale production of rare earth permanent magnet motors at home and abroad, the use of heavy rare earths will face a bottleneck of resource shortage. At present, some developed countries have used low-weight rare earth permanent magnets in motor products.

As a class of metal elements with special physical and chemical properties, it is widely used in many high-tech fields. There is a vivid metaphor that if oil is the blood of industry, then rare is the vitamin of industry, especially for the automobile industry. In permanent magnet motors, NdFeB is one of the most commonly used permanent magnet materials with a high residual magnet and energy product. Its 3 rare components: neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), pound (Dy), which are of great help to improve the dynamic magnetism, heat resistance, prolong life and reduce noise of the motor. Therefore, despite the high cost, permanent magnet motors have always been the mainstream configuration of new energy vehicles.

Dayang Electric recently said in an institutional survey that rare earth permanent magnet synchronous motor is currently the mainstream technical route of new energy vehicle drive motors, with a conversion efficiency of more than 90%, at present, the future technical route may develop in the direction of reducing the use of rare earths, specifically, less heavy rare earths, more light rare earths.

In general, the rare earths used in motors mostly refer to heavy rare earths, such as terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dv), holmium (Ho), neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr) and other elements. Different motors use different heavy rare earth elements because of their small stock and high cost. Now, companies are turning to more use of light rare earths and reducing the use of heavy rare earths.

The entire motor industry has begun to develop in the direction of less rare earths, especially to reduce the use of heavy rare earths.

Recently, Niu Mingkui, general manager of Zhejiang Founder Motor Co., Ltd., said in an interview with reporters that the reserves and prices of heavy rare earths and light rare earths are very different, such as praseodymium neodymium and neodymium The current market price is more than 700,000 yuan / ton, terbium is as high as more than 20 million yuan / ton, and lanthanide cerium rare earth costs are lower, only tens of thousands of yuan / ton. Therefore, the industry has achieved good results in promoting the elimination of heavy rare earths and reducing the amount of light rare earth praseodymium and neodymium.

In this regard, Niu Mingkui also analyzed from three aspects: first, the global rare earth reserves are enough to use, there is no need to be anxious: second, under the current technological development conditions, the use of rare earths by motors is much less than before, and the dependence on rare earths has been reduced: again, it is worth mentioning that with the development of the motor recycling industry, the rare earth materials of waste motors can technically achieve nearly 100% purification and recovery, which is also an important source of rare earths."The rare earth materials that were previously required to manufacture one motor may be used to produce two new motors in the future." He said that in the future, as the new energy vehicle market continues to grow, motor recycling may be an important source of rare earth materials, and "rare earth peaking" is also expected to be realized in advance. At that time, rare earth materials may achieve the same organic dynamic balance as new energy vehicles.

Epilogue

As a major resource country, China has chosen to use new energy as a void to preserve the transformation of the industrial system in the choice of continuing to maintain high-energy-consumption operations, or "scraping bones and healing wounds" of the original industrial system，We can also see that in recent years, China has continued to make great moves in the field of new energy, promoting its development through policy support, market introduction, and enterprise support.In 2022, the national key research and development plan "New Energy Vehicle Special Report" proposed to study high-efficiency rare-earth-free drive motors and accelerate the research and development of ultra-high-efficiency rare-earth-free motors. This means that the rare-earth-free motor has entered the national important technology strategic reserve, become a "new blue ocean" in industrial products and equipment, and become a new driving force on the road of resource transformation.