EEE PhD candidate Thomas Maani received the 2023 Environmental Research and Education Foundation (EREF) Scholarship for the second consecutive year. This award from EREF provides $15,000 for up to three years to fund exceptional students working to advance solid waste management science. 

Thomas, who is currently completing his EEE PhD under the advisement of Dr. John W. Sutherland, aims to develop decision-support tools and identify technologies to facilitate resource-recovery from end-of-life (EoL) electric vehicles, making their production more sustainable.

“I am currently focused on the recovery of rare-earth permanent magnets (REPM), which are used in the motors that power electric vehicles (EVs). Since these magnets rely heavily on rare-earth materials and less than one percent of REPMS are currently recovered after their end of life, this could limit a large-scale conversion to EV’s due to a lack of resources,” Thomas explains.

By understanding the material flows, environmental impacts, and economics associated with managing end-of-life (EoL) products, Thomas can develop new decision tools and technologies to help establish a circular economy that mitigates waste by reusing, remanufacturing, and\or recycling materials rather than extracting new resources.

According to Thomas, Purdue EEE’s ideology is well suited to his research goals.

“While many environmental engineering programs focus on addressing problems when they appear, such as cleaning up or reducing the impact of waste, Purdue EEE combines this with preventing problems before they arise through strategies such as circular materials economy and sustainable manufacturing. This holistic approach allows me to collaborate with researchers from various backgrounds to address environmental challenges more comprehensively.”

Thomas recently delivered an oral presentation on disassembly analysis to promote the recovery of rare-earth permanent magnets from end-of-life (EoL) electric vehicles at the 2023 ISIE Conference (Leiden, Netherlands), and was awarded Best Oral Presentation and the NSBE BCA Scholarship at the 2022 National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) 48th Annual Convention (Anaheim, California).

Thomas is currently a visiting scholar and research aide at the U.S. Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory where he is working to advance Argonne's GREET model (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies) by applying his expertise in life-cycle assessment and electric-vehicle batteries.

Congratulations, Thomas!