A location-allocation model for sustainable NdFeB magnet recovery under uncertainties

Neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets play a critical role in clean power products, e.g., electric vehicles and wind turbines. Since China has near monopolistic control of the supply of these magnets, many parties are interested in recovering end-of-life magnets for additional use cycles. Such a strategy requires a cost-effective approach to collect and process used magnets while maximizing the economic and environmental benefits. This paper employs fuzzy logic and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) to solve a location-allocation problem for NdFeB magnet recovery under supply and demand uncertainties. A Pareto front is constructed to evaluate the performance of the proposed design.