Permanent magnets are fundamental constituents in key
sectors such
as energy and transport, but also robotics, automatization, medicine,
etc. High-performance magnets are based on rare earth elements (RE),
included in the European list of critical raw materials list. The
volatility of their market increased the research over the past decade
to develop RE-free magnets to fill the large performance/cost gap
existing between ferrites and RE-based magnets. The improvement of
hard ferrites and Mn–Al–C permanent magnets plays into
this important technological role in the near future. The possible
substitution advantage was widely discussed in the literature considering
both magnetic properties and economic aspects. To evaluate further
sustainability aspects, the present paper gives a life cycle assessment
quantifying the environmental gain resulting from the production of
RE-free magnets based on traditional hexaferrite and Mn–Al–C.
The analysis quantified an advantage of both magnets that overcomes
the 95% in all the considered impact categories (such as climate change,
ozone depletion, human toxicity) compared to RE-based technologies.
The benefit also includes the health and safety of working time aspects,
proving possible reduction of worker risks by 3–12 times. The
results represent the fundamentals for the development of green magnets
that are able to significantly contribute to an effective sustainable
transition.