➤ Niron Magnetics is launching a manufacturing facility for rare-earth-free permanent magnets in Minnesota.
➤ The Department of Defense is focused on sustainable supply chains and investing in rare-earth-free materials.
➤ Niron's magnets reduce carbon footprints of electric vehicles, wind turbines and defense technologies such as fighter jets.
Amid growing ethical and environmental concerns associated with mining rare earth materials used to make batteries and other crucial internal technological components, Minnesota-based Niron Magnetics Inc. said this month it is launching a commercial manufacturing facility dedicated to producing permanent magnets that are not dependent on rare earth elements. The plant has an annual production capacity of more than 5 short tons of clean earth magnets.
Permanent magnets are used in wind turbines, EV motors, various consumer electronics and numerous defense applications, including fighter jets.
S&P Global Market Intelligence spoke to Niron Chief Technical Officer Frank Johnson in Washington, DC, to discuss how Niron's sustainable practices can reduce carbon footprints across public-private partnerships and the challenges the company faces as it scales up its technologies across various industries. Before joining Niron, Johnson worked for more than a decade at General Electric Co. Global Research, where he was a senior engineer and materials scientist specializing in magnetic materials for power generation, distribution and conversion technologies. Johnson was also a principal investigator for three federal research and development contracts and contributed to the company's critical material strategy in the area of rare earth supply risk mitigation.
An edited transcript of the conversation follows.
S&P Global Market Intelligence: Has Niron's relationship with the Department of Defense facilitated a shift in the DOD's emphasis toward sustainable supply chains and manufacturing practices?
 Frank Johnson, Niron chief technical officer.Source: Niron Magnetics. |
Frank Johnson:
Before, this usually took the form of stockpiling. However, recent changes in their approach include investing directly into developing rare-earth-free alternatives like ourselves. I'd also say that the DOD has enabled this shift by becoming more agile and responsive to changes, partly helped by advances in additive manufacturing and other advanced manufacturing techniques.
What challenges do you foresee in scaling up the production of your magnets for widespread adoption in sustainable industries? Are there any regulatory barriers or restrictions that have evolved or are in the process of changing?
Frankly, the most significant challenge we're facing is scaling up production fast enough to meet the demand. Permanent magnets are needed in so many industries, from electric vehicles to wind turbines to robotics.
Even if all those looking for magnets were to go the traditional route and employ rare earth elements, they would not have enough. With slower domestic mining licensing timelines and regulatory shifts away from obtaining rare earths from foreign sources, these industries are increasingly looking to rare-earth-free permanent magnet producers like Niron to fill the gaps.
So, scaling from an almost purely [research and development] operation to one that supplies a considerable proportion of the US critical permanent magnet supply will require some very nimble operating and strategic thinking. Luckily, we've been thinking about this and planning for some time, so this isn't a surprise to us. And we've taken numerous steps to ensure we are ready to meet that demand. That's not to say it is easy, but that is to say we are at least prepared.
How do Niron's magnets contribute to reduced carbon footprints in industries such as EVs semiconductors and renewable energy? How might they be affected by emerging environmental, social and governance reporting requirements?
When it comes to EVs and renewable energy, we can precisely calculate the carbon impact. For each kilowatt-hour of energy used in an EV, we can determine both the carbon footprint of electricity generation and the emissions avoided by replacing a gasoline engine. So, mathematically, higher EV market penetration directly translates to a greater reduction in fossil fuel emissions. This is also true for technologies using electric motors such as wind turbines, which are enhanced by high-performance magnets. The result is a significant reduction in the carbon footprint of transportation and other motor-dependent technologies.
I'd say we play less of a role in the semiconductor industry, but there is some impact. Advancements in power electronics — particularly those using silicon carbide and gallium nitride — enable more efficient operation at higher temperatures. This allows for smaller, more powerful motors suitable for cars and aircraft. These developments in power electronics have progressed in parallel with advances in magnetics and other materials.
Finally, as all of this relates to ESG reporting, our customers and investors increasingly focus on the total lifecycle and environmental impact of manufacturing components, tracing back to the mine. Much of that concern stems from a desire to be a better steward and improve ESG scores. For rare earth magnets, the mining process involves environmentally degrading extraction methods and complex thermal and chemical processes to transform ore into usable rare earth metals for alloying into magnets. This results in larger carbon footprints that can hugely negatively impact ESG scores.
Our technology offers a significant advantage in this regard. Its main components — iron and nitrogen — have inherently lower environmental impacts compared to rare earth materials. A lifecycle analysis conducted at Purdue University compared iron nitride to rare earth magnets, with our technology scoring better in every assessed category. This superiority stems from avoiding the intensive mining and refining processes associated with rare earth elements, which are notoriously difficult to extract and process — hence their "rare earth" designation.
Beyond partnerships with research institutions and universities or agencies like the Energy Department, what other ways do you envision Niron can participate in partnerships with public or government entities?
One of our biggest priorities right now is scaling up our workforce, and to accomplish that, we've been pretty actively engaged with the folks at the University of Minnesota. We have a number of jobs that require — not quite PhD level, but relatively technical skill — and the university has been great at helping us build a talent pipeline. We've had many summer interns come through their programs, and they have worked out quite well.
However, this workforce need extends beyond the university, and we see ourselves as a critical component in broadly creating good-paying manufacturing jobs for Americans. To that end, we are also in regular talks with communities where we see ourselves as good corporate citizens and can engage with the community to the point where we can construct and scale manufacturing facilities. We regularly work with local city governments to ensure that we can put in a manufacturing facility that provides the most benefits for most people.
We most recently did this with the City of Sartell, Minnesota. On Oct. 1, we jointly announced that we entered into a purchase agreement to construct a 150,000-square-foot manufacturing facility to produce rare-earth-free permanent magnets. In total, the project is projected to create 327 jobs (of those, 175 are permanent non-construction jobs) and contribute about $8.7 million in annual tax revenue.