The project’s goal will be achieved by developing and demonstrating 8 innovative pilot plants at TRL 7, with demonstration of functionality in electromobility applications and water motor pumps. The consortium consists of 21 partners (14 companies) from 8 countries.
The PASSENGER project has specific objectives that are designed to deliver the project goal of mitigating the EU’s dependence on REEs used in the fabrication of permanent magnets. The specific objectives cover four areas:
(i) Technical Objectives: up-scaled production (several tonnes per year) of REE-free permanent magnets with a major cost advantage by comparison NdFeB magnets.
(ii) Business Objectives: strengthen the project and ensure that the science and technology developed is converted into a European presence in the non-REE permanent-magnets market and the associated electromobility technologies.
(iii) Environmental Objectives: ensure the environmental credentials of the outcomes, while at the same time exploring the circularity of the used technologies.
(iv) Societal Objectives: Raise awareness by communicating findings to the public, university/research/industry, local and national governments and the EC. Cluster with related national and H2020 projects, with the EIT KIC raw materials, non-EU initiatives and global-standards organizations.
PASSENGER addresses an area of extreme criticality: permanent magnets are an economic, technological, environmental and social necessity. Europe’s almost total reliance on REE-based magnets is an extremely high-risk position to hold and could have severe, negative impacts across many technological sectors risking the achievement of the European Green Deal Objectives. The primary impacts of the PASSENGER project are:
• Dramatic reduction in Europe’s REE dependency.
• Reduce environmental impact.
• To scale up promising technologies for raw-materials production or the substitution of CRMs, to demonstrate that raw materials can be produced in an innovative and sustainable way, and to ensure that research and innovation end up on the market.
• The EU magnet industry will reposition itself in the world market based on new technologies.
• Reduced costs for the users of permanent magnets (based on much less costly raw materials) and increased revenues for magnet producers.
