Fundamental study of phosphor separation by controlling magnetic force

•We tried to separate the phosphor using the magnetic Archimedes separation method.•In this method, vertical and radial components of the magnetic force were used.•We succeeded to separate HP and developed the continuous separation system.•The separation system enables successive separation and recovery of HP.

The phosphor wastes consist of phosphors with different emission colors, green (LAP), red (YOX), blue (BAM) and white (HP). It is required to recover and reuse the rare earth phosphors with high market value. In this study, we tried to separate the phosphor using the magnetic separation by HTS bulk magnet utilizing the differences of magnetic susceptibility by the type of phosphors. We succeeded in the successive separation of HP with low market value from YOX and BAM including the rare earth using the magnetic Archimedes method. In this method, vertical and radial components of the magnetic force were used.