Resource recovery and remediation of highly alkaline residues: A political-industrial ecology approach to building a circular economy

Pauline Deutz,Helen Baxter,David Gibbs,William M Mayes,Helena I Gomes

doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2017.03.021

Abstract

Highly alkaline industrial residues (e.g., steel slag, bauxite processing residue (red mud) and ash from coal combustion) have been identified as stocks of potentially valuable metals. Technological change has created demand for metals, such as vanadium and certain rare earth elements, in electronics associated with renewable energy generation and storage. Current raw material and circular economy policy initiatives in the EU and industrial ecology research all promote resource recovery from residues, with research so far primarily from an environmental science perspective. This paper begins to address the deficit of research into the governance of resource recovery from a novel situation where re-use involves extraction of a component from a bulk residue that itself represents a risk to the environment. Taking a political industrial ecology approach, we briefly present emerging techniques for recovery and consider their regulatory implications in the light of potential environmental impacts. The paper draws on EU and UK regulatory framework for these residues along with semi-structured interviews with industry and regulatory bodies. A complex picture emerges of entwined ownerships and responsibilities for residues, with past practice and policy having a lasting impact on current possibilities for resource recovery.

Highlights

This paper examines the issues involved in realising a potential source of a material, vanadium, considered important for the production of innovative renewables technologies, which in turn are seen as pillars of economic development in the European Union (Moss et al, 2011)
Given that a potential source of vanadium is the residue of steel production, i.e., a waste, insufficient critical attention has been paid to the contingencies that may be involved in operationalising resource recovery
The content of metals such as vanadium in these residues can be equivalent to the concentrations found in ore-grade deposits (up to 5% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) in steel slag whilst concentrations can be less than 2% in mined ores (Aarabi-Karasgani et al, 2010)

Summary

Introduction

This paper examines the issues involved in realising a potential source of a material, vanadium, considered important for the production of innovative renewables technologies, which in turn are seen as pillars of economic development in the European Union (Moss et al, 2011). Long used as a strengthening agent in steel, vanadium is important for example in energy storage cells These can offset intermittent renewable electricity sources or function as part of a stand-alone local renewable system (Joerissen et al, 2004). The designation of a material’s criticality is not without subjectivity (Hobson, 2016) It involves predicting technological change, the uptake of innovations, knowledge of sources (existing) and potentially commercially sensitive information on reserves (available to use) of potentially economically or politically sensitive materials, as well as the political stability of nations with reserves and their willingness to trade (Moss et al, 2011, 2013)

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