LGELECTRONICS announced on the 27th that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the “Pilot Project for the Recovery of Waste Permanent Magnets from Refrigerant Compressors in Discarded Home Appliances” with the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Environment and E-Circular Governance at the Seoul Metropolitan Area Resource Recycling Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. The signing ceremony was attended by Geum Han-seung, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Environment; Lee Sang-jin, Chairman of E-Circular Governance; Yang Hee-gu, Head of the Production Innovation Center at LGELECTRONICS’ Production Technology Institute; and Jeong Dae-jin, Head of the Mold & Quality Research Institute, among others.
Rare earth elements are key minerals widely used in cutting-edge industries such as electric vehicles, industrial motors, and home appliances, and securing a stable supply chain for them has recently become increasingly important. The core of this project is to recover rare earth permanent magnets—which are used in compressors, a key component of home appliances—at the end-of-life stage. Until now, only certain metals, such as copper, have been recovered from discarded compressors. Due to their strong magnetic force, rare earth permanent magnets have been difficult to separate and have mostly been recycled together with scrap metal.
To address this issue, LGELECTRONICS has developed a proprietary “demagnetization” technology that utilizes magnetic fields. This method removes the strong magnetic force of the permanent magnets using a magnetic field and then safely separates them. Compared to conventional heat treatment methods that use high temperatures to separate the magnets, this approach reduces energy consumption. The company explains that it also prevents changes in the magnets’ physical properties caused by heat, thereby increasing recovery efficiency and recycling value.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also utilized in the rare earth recovery process. Using vision AI-based image analysis technology, the system recognizes the size and shape of waste compressors and precisely analyzes the locations of rare earth permanent magnets inside them to apply the optimal separation process.
LGELECTRONICS estimates that through this pilot project, it will be able to recover approximately 1.6 metric tons of rare-earth permanent magnets from about 40,000 end-of-life appliances annually. The recovered permanent magnets are planned to be utilized in the development of raw material conversion technologies for the future production of new magnets.
Yang Hee-gu, Head of the Production Innovation Center at LGELECTRONICS’ Production Technology Institute, stated, “We will continue to strengthen our technological capabilities
to recover and reuse key materials from end-of-life products, thereby contributing to the realization of a circular economy, while also taking the lead in establishing a stable foundation for the circular use of future critical minerals,” said Yang Hee-gu, Head of the Production Innovation Center at LG Electronics’ Production Technology Institute.
