NdFeB magnet recycling: Dysprosium recovery by non-dispersive solvent extraction employing hollow fibre membrane contactor

Hollow Fibre Membrane (HFM) operation in non-dispersive solvent extraction (NDSX) mode has been successfully employed for the separation of dysprosium from NdFeB magnetic scrap material using EHEHPA as an extractant. Effect of various hydrodynamic parameters including aqueous phase acidity, extractant concentration, Dy concentration in feed, phase ratio and flow rate were investigated to optimize the condition for quantitative recovery of dysprosium from the leach liquor obtained by the dissolution of hard disk drive (HDD) in nitric acid media. 0.5 M EHEHPA, 0.3 M HNO3 as aqueous feed phase, 100 ml/min flow rate and phase ratio of 1:1 were found to be optimum for both the cycle test runs. Taking the advantage of fast extraction kinetics of dysprosium, two cycle HFM-NDSX approach was adopted to concentrate Dy from 20 to 83% in first cycle while raising its purity >97% in the second cycle. The overall process also yielded neodymium rich by-product for its further purification.