Endangered elements, critical raw materials and conflict minerals

Abstract

Amid present concerns over a potential scarcity of critical elements and raw materials that are essential for modern technology, including those for low-carbon energy production, a survey of the present situation, and how it may unfold both in the immediate and the longer term, appears warranted. For elements such as indium, current recycling rates are woefully low, and although a far more effective recycling programme is necessary for most materials, it is likely that a full-scale inauguration of a global renewable energy system will require substitution of many scarcer elements by more Earth-abundant material alternatives. Currently, however, it is fossil fuels that are needed to process them, and many putative Earth-abundant material technologies are insufficiently close to the level of commercial viability required to begin to supplant their fossil fuel equivalents “necessarily rapidly and at scale”. As part of a significant expansion of renewable energy production, it will be necessary to recycle elements from wind turbines and solar panels (especially thin-film cells). The interconnected nature of particular materials, for example, cadmium, gallium, germanium, indium and tellurium, all mainly being recovered from the production of zinc, aluminium and copper, and helium from natural gas, means that the availability of such ‘hitchhiker’ elements is a function of the reserve size and production rate of the primary (or ‘attractor’) material. Even for those elements that are relatively abundant on Earth, limitations in their production rates/supply may well be experienced on a timescale of decades, and so a more efficient (reduced) use of them, coupled with effective collection and recycling strategies, should be embarked upon urgently.

Evaluating the Waste Prevention Potential of a Multi- versus Single-Use Surgical Stapler

“… 8 This CE approach strives to slow, narrow and close socioeconomic material cycles, 9 by reducing absolute material flows. 3 , 7 , 10 It is fundamentally different to a traditional linear economy whereby raw materials are collected, transformed into products, used once, and discarded as waste.…”

Strategic minerals: Global challenges post-COVID-19

“…Following the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, officials United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) reported that certain metals were critical for the electronics industry, including Ta, In, and Ru. They also drew attention to how these metals were also important for photovoltaic technologies, batteries, platinum group metals, and rare earth elements in general ( Rhodes, 2019 ).…”

“…In June 2011, the European Union (EU) published a report which identified 14 critical raw materials vital to countries comprising the zone. It included detailed information about essential supply and demand, sharing statistics, as well as insights on how to obtain these resources through the circular economy (i.e., through electronic waste recycling) ( Rhodes, 2019 ). Senior EU officials expressed concern from possible supply restrictions for environmental reasons.…”

A Framework and Baseline for the Integration of a Sustainable Circular Economy in Offshore Wind

“…The majority of publications are focused on material recycling and recovery: (a) in general [7,48,84], (b) of blade materials [47,[85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96] or (c) of critical raw materials [97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105]. Joining up the start and the end of low-carbon infrastructure supply chains, resource security concerns [102,106,107], design for recycling [108,109] and supply chain security and development [95,103] are covered.…”