Published date: 9 June 2021

Last edited date: 30 June 2021

Closed opportunity - This means that the contract is currently closed. The buying department may be considering suppliers that have already applied, or no suitable offers were made.


Closing: 21 July 2021, 12pm

Contract summary

Industry

  • Hydrogen, argon, rare gases, nitrogen and oxygen - 24111000

  • Magnets - 31630000

  • Pressure vessels - 44615000

Location of contract

B15 2TT

Value of contract

£610,000

Procurement reference

SC9230/21

Published date

9 June 2021

Closing date

21 July 2021

Closing time

12pm

Contract start date

11 August 2021

Contract end date

28 February 2022

Contract type

Supply contract

Procedure type

Open procedure (above threshold)

Any interested supplier may submit a tender in response to an opportunity notice.

This procedure can be used for procurements above the relevant contract value threshold.

Contract is suitable for SMEs?

Yes

Contract is suitable for VCSEs?

No

Description

This project is funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Industrial Strategy
Challenge Fund; Driving the Electric Revolution under grant agreement 1524086
The University of Birmingham invites tenders for supply of a bespoke, hydrogen
processing of magnet scrap (HPMS) vessel. The HPMS vessel will be the largest magnet
recycling plant of its kind in the UK and will focus on processing of end of life magnets
containing magnetic scrap.
The HPMS vessel is based on a patented technology, developed at the University of
Birmingham, in which hydrogen is used to extract neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B)
magnet powder from end of life permanent magnet containing products. During the
P a g e | 3
HPMS process, sintered Nd-Fe-B magnets, which are embedded in end of life products,
are loaded inside a vessel, which is then sealed, evacuated, back filled with an inert gas
(e.g. Argon or Nitrogen), evacuated and then filled with between 1-4 bar of hydrogen
at room temperature for between 1-4 hours. Once exposed to hydrogen, the sintered
Nd-Fe-B undergoes the hydrogen decrepitation (HD) process and breaks down into a
friable, demagnetised, hydrogenated powder.
Often the end of life products containing the Nd-Fe-B material are encased within some
sort of housing so the hydrogenated powder needs to be liberated from the scrap using
mechanical agitation through a porous sieve stage. This is typically performed by
rotating the scrap within a porous drum (3-5 mm pore size) within the HPMS vessel,
after which the powder falls into a sealable collection pot at the bottom of the vessel,
which can then be unloaded under an argon or nitrogen atmosphere (O2 = < 5 ppm).
It would be an advantage if the HPMS vessel could be inertly loaded with scrap in this
application through a hopper system or that flanges were in place to retro-fit this.
The extracted alloy powder will be converted into recycled NdFeB magnets using further
processes, which do not form part of this tender.
The HPMS process has already been demonstrated at the 5 kg scale using a 300 L vessel
at the University of Birmingham. The main objective of the new HPMS vessel will be to
scale this technology up to 200-300 kg batch sizes.
Note, due to the space requirements of the system, the large scale HPMS vessel will be
installed at the Tyseley Energy Park (TEP).
The overall budget for this item is up to £610,000 excluding VAT.

About the buyer

Contact name

Susanna Ting

Address

Chancellors Court,Edgbaston
BIRMINGHAM
B152TT
England

Email

S.Y.Ting@bham.ac.uk