Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals

Hagelüken, Christian; Meskers, Christina

doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262013581.003.0010

Cited by 48 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A holistic approach to life cycle, recycling chain and location is essential at the various levels -system, product, process. All the factors -technological, societal, legislative and economic need to be considered [16].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recycling of gold from electronics: Cost-effective use through ‘Design for Recycling’

Hagelüken

Corti²

2010

Gold Bull

Self Cite

253

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With over 300 tonnes of gold used in electronics each year, end-of-life electronic equipment offers an important recycling potential for the secondary supply of gold. With gold concentrations reaching 300-350 g/t for mobile phone handsets and 200-250 g/t for computer circuit boards, this "urban mine" is significantly richer than what is available in primary ores. However, the "mineralogy" in scrap products is much different than in the conventional ores in a gold mine: Up to 60 different elements are closely interlinked in complex assemblies and sub-assemblies, and this requires specialised metallurgical processes with extensive offgas treatment to recover gold and a wide range of other metals cost effectively and in an environmentally sound way. Moreover, the logistics to "excavate" and "haul" the scrap products to the concentrator and further to the smelter are much more challenging than in the primary supply chain. Currently, only a small portion of old products is collected and directed into state-of-the art recycling chains. Significant improvements are needed here to fully utilise this secondary metal resource.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recycling of gold from electronics: Cost-effective use through ‘Design for Recycling’

Hagelüken

Corti²

2010

Gold Bull

Self Cite

253

104

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Because the importance of "recycling" for resource efficiency, and thus for sustainability, is well known and because it has been treated well elsewhere, e.g. [28][29][30], we do not discuss the topic in detail in the present paper.…”

Section: What Does "Critical" Mean?mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Potential Scarcity of Rare Elements for the Energiewende

Bradshaw

Reuter

Hamacher

2013

Green

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:In the next few decades there is expected to be a global shift in power generation from fossil fuels and nuclear fission to various forms of renewable energy. This process will be accompanied, however, by a strong demand for non-fuel raw materials required for the generation, storage, transmission and utilisation of these energy forms. Some of the raw materials are potentially exhaustible; some are already regarded, rightly or wrongly, as geochemically "scarce". Many of them have been characterised by steep price increases in recent years. Examples are neodymium, praseodymium and dysprosium for rare earth-based permanent magnets in wind turbines; indium, gallium, selenium and tellurium for thin film solar cells; helium. The supply situation with regard to such elements is often described as "critical". A possible geochemical scarcity is, however, not the only factor contributing to this designation; the supply situation is influenced by various other parameters. We discuss the use of the terms "critical" and "criticality" in this context, pointing out the confusion which arises because of a different meaning of the terms in the physical sciences. In examining the elements mentioned above -both with respect to the supply situation and to their specific energy-oriented applications -we look at the issues of potential geochemical scarcity, substitutability and extraction as by-product. Together with the recycling potential these are three important indicators, or constraint parameters, in so-called criticality analyses. Geochemical scarcity already seems to play a role in the case of helium and could also soon become apparent for tellurium, indium and possibly dysprosium. We conclude that geochemical scarcity may pertain as a consequence of mineral depletion when average grades of ore are falling, but at the same time inflation-corrected mineral prices are rising. The use of rare metals for the production of renewable energy -like nearly all resource-consuming systems in our societydoes not satisfy "strong" sustainability criteria.

show abstract

“…On average, about 10.4 g/ton of gold is contained in e-waste as reported by USGS [27]. Estimation of gold content in mobile phones is 300-350 g/ton while for computer circuit boards (PCBs), is about 200-250 g/ton [28,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Environmental Impact of Electricity Consumption in Crushing and Grinding Processes of Traditional and Urban Gold Mining by Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Yahaya¹

2012

IJEE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Mining is not only an essential component of social and economic development since prehistoric time, but it also gives a large impact on our civilization. Gold is a noble metal that is highly valued. The extraction of minerals from earth is known as traditional mining. Gold also can be extracted from electronic waste or e-waste, and this new concept is called urban mining. There are many stages in traditional and urban mining process. However, in this study, the focus was on crushing and grinding processes to produce 1 kg of gold. Crushing and grinding are processes in the milling stage. This research evaluates and compares the environmental impacts of crushing and grinding processes, based on electricity consumption. About 50 to 65% of total electricity in milling was used for crushing and grinding processes. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was used as a tool to evaluate the environmental burdens of electricity usage in converting ore and electronic waste to gold bars. The Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) of this process was interpreted by using Eco-indicator 99 assessment methods in SimaPro software. The impact categories included in this study were carcinogens, respiratory organics, respiratory inorganics, radiation, climate change, ozone layer, ecotoxicity, acidification or eutrophication, land use and minerals. The results showed that crushing and grinding from traditional mining gave the largest impact to the environment with single score of 399 Pt compared to the urban mining with only 1.81 Pt score. The highest impact in both types of mining is to human health.

show abstract

Complex Life Cycles of Precious and Special Metals

Cited by 48 publications

References 0 publications

Recycling of gold from electronics: Cost-effective use through ‘Design for Recycling’

Recycling of gold from electronics: Cost-effective use through ‘Design for Recycling’

The Potential Scarcity of Rare Elements for the Energiewende

Environmental Impact of Electricity Consumption in Crushing and Grinding Processes of Traditional and Urban Gold Mining by Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About