High-tech Metals Research Articles

Adsorption of rare earth elements in regolith-hosted clay deposits

Global resources of heavy Rare Earth Elements (REE) are dominantly sourced from Chinese regolith-hosted ion-adsorption deposits in which the REE are inferred to be weakly adsorbed onto clay minerals. Similar deposits elsewhere might provide alternative supply for these high-tech metals, but the adsorption mechanisms remain unclear and the adsorbed state of REE to clays has never been demonstrated in situ. This study compares the mineralogy and speciation of REE in economic weathering profiles from China to prospective regoliths developed on peralkaline rocks from Madagascar. We use synchrotron X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study the distribution and local bonding environment of Y and Nd, as proxies for heavy and light REE, in the deposits. Our results show that REE are truly adsorbed as easily leachable 8- to 9-coordinated outer-sphere hydrated complexes, dominantly onto kaolinite. Hence, at the atomic level, the Malagasy clays are genuine mineralogical analogues to those currently exploited in China.

First Finds of Native Gold and Platinum in the Ilmenite Placers of the Ariadnoye Basite–Ultrabasite Intrusion (Primorye)

The basic features of mineralogy and geochemistry of the gold-ilmenite placers, which are spatially and genetically associated with the Ariadnoye intrusion of ultrabasites (the right bank of the Ussuri River), are provided. The composition of platinum and gold was studied, and a complex of associated high-tech metals was revealed. It has been established that ultrabasites acted as the main supplier of useful components into the placers. Insightful mineralogical and geochemical studies of ore-bearing intrusions of ultrabasites of the Sikhote-Alin orogenic belt will expand the prospects for the raw material base of strategic metals in the southern part of the Far East.

Critical Metals Ga, Ge and In: Experimental Evidence for Smelter Recovery Improvements

High-tech metals, including Ga, Ge and In, are critical for the performance of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). None of these three metals exist in mineable levels in natural minerals, and thus their availability and production are dependent on the primary and secondary base metals (including Zn, Al and Cu) production. To secure the supply of high-tech metals in the future, their behavior, including distribution coefficients (LCu/s = [wt% M]in copper/(wt% M)in slag), in primary and secondary processes need to be characterized. This study reports three series of copper-slag distribution experiments for Ga, Ge and In in simulated secondary copper smelting and refining process conditions (T = 1300 °C, pO2 = 10−9–10−5 atm) using a well-developed drop–quench technique followed by EPMA and LA-ICP-MS analyses. This study shows how an analytical technique more traditionally applied to the characterization of ores or minerals can also be applied to metallurgical process investigation. The LA-ICP-MS analysis was used for the first time for measuring the concentrations of these minor elements in metallurgical glasses, i.e., slags, and the results were compared to the geological literature. The distribution coefficient of indium increased as a function of decreasing oxygen partial pressure from 0.03 to 10, whereas the distribution coefficient of gallium was 0.1 at 10−9 atm and decreased as the pO2 increased. The concentrations of gallium in slags were between 0.4 and 0.6 wt% and germanium around 1 ppm. Germanium was vaporized almost entirely from the samples.

Future trends and strategies of recycling high-tech metals from urban mines in China: 2015–2050

High-tech metals are necessary materials for strategic emerging industries but their primary ores are generally difficult to be extracted because of economic and technical limitations. Urban mines have become a potential pool of secondary high-tech metals, called high-tech urban mines (HUMs). It is important and urgent to make a dynamic evaluation to understand the potential and technical feasibility for HUMs development. In this study, we construct the strategic development index (SDI) from three aspects - resource, technology, and environmental (R-T-E) to assess HUMs in China from 2015 to 2050. Furthermore, development strategies are proposed based on the dynamic evaluation results. Here we show that, there are four patterns of future trends of HUMs in China - sustainable growth, first increase and then decrease, continuous decline, and fading out. The distribution of HUMs in “R-T-E” shows a trend of polarization with continuously shrinks of the range along all the three indexes. According to the evaluation results, different strategies - key development strategy, digestion strategy, reserve strategy and transfer strategy - should be adopted to develop HUMs. Wind turbines, fluorescence lamps, smartphones, EVs, Li-ion batteries and computers will be main reservoirs of secondary high-tech metals for a long time, they should be the focus of technology, funds and policy from both the government and enterprises.

Bond Flotation with Exotic Commodity Collateral

Exotic high tech metals such as rare earth oxides, titanium and nickel wire are increasingly important to semi-conductor, aerospace and high end defence technology R & D and production. As a result – while not market traded and therefore sporadic order dependent and highly volatile – prices of these commodities have been rising on average over the past decade. The metals trading subsidiary of an international group acquired over 6 M metres of nickel wire which at the current market price of about 300 EUR per metre is worth over 1.6 B EUR. The firm wished to raise from 300 M to 1B EUR in the capital markets in order to purchase a variety of these high tech metals to take advantage over the medium term (5 to 10 years) of generally rising prices. After a brief description of the current state of the exotic high tech metalss markets, this paper treats the technical pricing and default risk analysis of an example 350 M EUR 7 year amortized corporate bond issue backed by a nickel wire inventory and subsequent high tech metal trading as collateral. Topics covered include security modelling with high tech metal collateral, the design of 100% risk free securities with third party derivatives and security pricing and trading methodology. The complex stochastic analysis and Monte Carlo simulation analysis presented is based in part on specially developed modelling of the nickel wire catalogue price and third party price projections for rare earth oxides and titanium. The analysis is based on 10 year (2008-2017) daily market data and supports an optimistic view in that after accounting for all ongoing costs we find a zero default probability for the bond issue – a situation seldom seen to accompany its stipulated 12% internal rate of return.

Mechanism of Gd3+ uptake in gypsum (CaSO4·2H2O): Implications for EPR dating, REE recovery and REE behavior

Rare earth elements (REE) in gypsum have long attracted interest for geochemical applications from the reconstruction of paleoclimate, paleoenvironment and paleohydrology to the monitoring of volcanic and seismic activities. Resurgent interests in REE in gypsum stem from the potential recovery of these high-tech metals from gypsum-rich tailings. Development of new geochemical applications and invention of effective recovery technologies all require knowledge about the mechanism of REE uptake in gypsum. In this contribution, we have investigated Gd-doped gypsum from the gel diffusion technique at ambient conditions in the pH range from 6.5 to 9.5. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analyses of Gd-doped gypsum yielded 752 ppm Gd at pH = 6.5 down to 2.8 ppm Gd at pH = 9.5. Synchrotron Gd L3-edge X-ray absorption spectra show that Gd3+ has a local environment similar to that of Ca2+ in gypsum. Single-crystal electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR, also known as electron spin resonance or ESR) spectra reveal a dominant Gd3+ center with weak satellites. The dominant Gd3+ center arises from a substitutional Gd3+ ion at the Ca site retaining its C2 local symmetry, which is also confirmed by pulsed electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) data for proton hyperfine structures up to 5.2 Å away from Gd3+. The satellites are attributable to a Gd3+-Gd3+ pair (dimer) along the crystallographic a-axis with a dipolar coupling constant Dd/geβe = −13 G, which corresponds to a distance of 12.6 Å between the two Gd3+ ions and provides the first experimental confirmation for the substitution 2Gd3+ + □ = 3Ca2+ in gypsum. Hole trapping at cation vacancies associated with the incorporation of Gd3+ (and other trivalent REE) in gypsum offers a new class of radiation-induced paramagnetic defects in this mineral for EPR/ESR dating. These results also have implications for developing new technologies for effective recovery of REE from gypsum-rich tailings and for understanding the behavior of REE in evaporites and aqueous solutions.

Ni-Co enrichment and High-Tech metals geochemistry in the Wingellina Ni-Co oxide-type laterite deposit (Western Australia)

The aim of this study is to evaluate the Ni-Co enrichment and the high-tech metals (REE and Sc) geochemistry in the Wingellina Ni-Co oxide-type laterite deposit (Western Australia). The study has been carried out on two mineralized cores (WPDD0012 and WPDD0019 drillcores) originating from two areas of the deposit. The geochemical assessments have been integrated with the analysis of laterite facies and sample mineralogy. In both the studied laterite profiles Ni enrichment was mostly controlled by the paragenetic evolution of the laterite itself, whereas Co enrichment was related to the formation of Mn-oxy-hydroxide-rich horizons in the limonitic ore-body. Significant REEs concentrations (up to 890 ppm) have been observed within the limonite zones. The correlation between REEs and the major oxides shows a decoupling between Ce and the other REEs, likely reflecting either a variable enrichment process among the different REEs, or a heterogeneous mineralogy of the REEs-bearing phases. Differently from other Ni-Co laterite deposits, Sc is only in limited part correlated with Fe2O3, having been most commonly detected in Ni- and SiO2-rich zones of the saprolitic parts of the profiles. All the geochemical features, the facies characteristics and the Ni-Co, REEs and Sc grades observed in the two studied profiles seems to be the results of the interactions between two main controlling factors: distinct parent rock lithology and diverse degree of serpentinization.

Strategic evaluation of recycling high-tech metals from urban mines in China: An emerging industrial perspective

High-tech minerals are essential for strategic emerging industries, and urban mines have become principal potential reservoirs of secondary high-tech mineral resources. In order to evaluate high-tech urban mines to understand their criticality and determine their potential and priority for high-tech minerals recovery, this paper develops a model with three dimensions - resource index, technology index, and environmental index. This model is applied to data from China, and a Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to estimate uncertainty. The results show that high-tech urban mines in China are divided into three clusters. The first cluster includes urban mines which have high scores in all three indices, they should be the top priority of collection and recycling. The second cluster covers high-tech urban mines with middle scores in resource index and technology index, and environmental index span from low to high. They are important second resources reservoirs of high-tech metals and should be paid significant attention. In the third cluster, high-tech urban mines have low scores in all three indices, they are not the focus of development but can't be ignored. Spent batteries, mobile phones and magnet motors are key reservoirs of high-tech metals. Furtherly, this paper presents that the evaluation model construction and evaluation results are deeply affected by consumption behavior, technology level, industrial development and the policy direction of the country. Based on the results, this paper proposes that urban mining should be treated as a national strategy to release the dual constraints of resources and environment, catalogue of key urban mining should be made, and to build a dynamic evaluation system and adjust the catalogue over time, and develop technologies for more effective and environment-friendly extraction material of urban mines.

How multi/interdisciplinarity is actualised in work organisation with professional employees specialised in single disciplines: two case studies of the high-technology industry

ABSTRACTHigher education is based on a disciplinary system and science-specific educational programmes, but multi/interdisciplinarity (MD/ID) knowledge, working methods and collaboration are becoming common in the workplace with complex tasks and digital work environments. This article will provide an insight into these issues by presenting a study of the organisation of work in the high-tech metals industry, studying firms whose production is based on specialised technology, i.e. in the convergence of industrial branches.Given that knowledge of many disciplinary fields and methods are prerequisites, this convergence suggests a MD/ID work organisation to cope with the specialised technological infrastructure. The aim of these case studies is to examine how MD and ID are actualised in the organisation of work sites in the converged metals industry. The data consist of interviews collected from firms and expert organisations.

Mineral resources of high-tech metals in Russia: State of the art and outlook

Seven main ore-forming systems—porphyry and epithermal; orogenic related to granitic intrusions; magmatic ultramafic; volcanic-hosted massive sulfide and volcanic–sedimentary; sedimentary basins; related to alkaline magmatic activity; and placers and weathering mantles—are sources of high-tech critical metals. The following promising types of ore deposits containing high-tech critical metals as by-products are recognized: Cu–Mo porphyry, Fe–Cu–Au and Pb–Zn skarn, base-metal epithermal, volcanic-hosted massive sulfide, base-metal stratiform, various tin deposits, and placers containing rare metals including REE. The mineral resources of critical metals in Russia are compared with those known in other countries. The contents of high-tech critical metals in ores of some noble-metal deposits of the Russian Northeast are reported. It is shown that the subsurface of Russia possesses considerable mineral resource potential for hightech critical metals, which allows new enterprises to be created or production of operating enterprises to increase.

An experimental study on the mixing behavior of Ti, Zr, V and Mo in the Elbe, Rhine and Weser estuaries

Estuaries are important interfaces between land and ocean, in which the input of trace metals into the ocean via the rivers is often significantly modified along the mixing gradient between freshwater and seawater. In the present study we have carried out mixing experiments using river water from the Rhine, the Elbe and the Weser and seawater from the North Sea with the aim of gaining more insights into the behavior of titanium (Ti), zirconium (Zr), vanadium (V) and molybdenum (Mo) and their distribution between dissolved and particulate forms during mixing in the estuaries. Little is known about the modification of their concentrations in estuaries and these metals increasingly enter the rivers and the ocean due to their application as so-called high-tech metals in industrial activities. Such laboratory experiments at controlled conditions allow the systematic investigation of chemical changes related to the mixing ratios, independent of further influence factors occurring in natural systems. Adsorptive stripping voltammetry was used for the analytical determination of the four metals. Although our data largely confirmed a strong particle-reactive behavior of Ti and Zr and a mostly conservative behavior of Mo, our mixing experiments revealed partial deviation from this behavior. Vanadium mostly does not follow a strict conservative mixing trend but shows both small ad- and desorption effects along the salinity transect. Also Mo shows some deviations from conservative mixing at mid-salinities. The enrichment of dissolved Ti and Zr at about 50:50 river: seawater mixtures agrees with recently published data of similar field studies and appears to be a systematic effect possibly related to charge transitions on particle surfaces or change of the dissolved metal speciation. The observed effects partly differed in experiments with filtered and non-filtered river water samples, especially for Ti and Zr, highlighting the role of riverine particulate matter for the modification of dissolved trace metal fluxes in estuaries.

On the current and future availability of gallium

By-product availability curves were constructed for the production of gallium from bauxite, sulphidic zinc ores and coal. They were used to assess the nature of the current supply regime, as well as its potential future development. Not only was the current situation found to be firmly in the elastic supply regime for all three raw materials, indicating that significant future increases in primary gallium production are possible without increases in the production of the corresponding main products, but it was also found that current supply potential from bauxite and sulphidic zinc ores alone is at least five times higher than current primary production. Coal offers a significant additional supply potential (currently at least ~1.3 times primary gallium production). An extrapolation of growth trends for the primary production of bauxite, zinc and gallium into the future indicates that the minimum supply potential will not be utilised completely before 2050. Once this point is reached, additional increases in primary gallium production relative to the production of bauxite and zinc will still be possible via decreases in the relevant cut-off grades for extraction from these raw materials. No persistent shortages are expected in the foreseeable future. Short-term shortages might, however, occur but will not be due to geological factors. Our results clearly refute the notion that the supply of all by-product high-tech metals is currently restricted by their physical abundance in associated main products. Rather, the chief limitation appears to be installed production capacity.

Trace elements in corundum, chrysoberyl, and zircon: Application to mineral exploration and provenance study of the western Mamfe gem clastic deposits (SW Cameroon, Central Africa)

Trace element abundances in three indicator minerals (corundum, chrysoberyl, and zircon grains) from the western Mamfe gem placers, as determined by LA-ICP-MS analytical techniques, are shown to be sensitive to their crystallization conditions and source rock types.Corundum is dominantly composed of Al (standardized at 529,300 ppm), Fe (2496–12,899 ppm), and Ti (46–7070 ppm). Among element ratios, Fe/Mg (73–1107), Fe/Ti (0.5–245.0), Ti/Mg (1–175), and Ga/Mg (4–90) are generally higher whereas, Cr/Ga (<0.072) is low. The Fe (≤12,899), Ga (≤398), Mg (2–62), Cr (1.1–33.0), and V (3.0–93.0) contents (in ppm) mostly typify corundum grains formed in magmatic rocks, although some are metamorphic affiliated. A very higher Ti and significantly low Ga, Ta and Nb contents in some blue grains, suggest interesting concentrations of those high-tech metals in their source rocks.Chrysoberyl is dominantly composed of Al (standardized at 425,000 ppm) and Be (62701–64371 ppm). Iron (7605–9225 ppm), Sn (502–3394 ppm), and Ti (33–2251 ppm) contents are high, whereas Ga (333–608 ppm), Ta (<456.0 ppm), and Nb (<3.0 ppm) are significantly low. The high (Be and Sn) and significantly low Ga–Rb abundances, and Ta > Nb in the western Mamfe chrysoberyls show that they were crystallized in granitic pegmatites, with some of those source rocks being enriched in Ta and Sn.Zirconium oxide (ZrO2: standardized at 66.1 wt.%)) is the only major oxide in analysed coarse-grained zircons. Within the minor elementary suites: Hf (4576–12,565 ppm) and Y (48–2805 ppm) contents are significantly high. The trace element suites include: Th (7–1565 ppm), U (13–687 ppm), and ∑REE (50–2161 ppm), whose values are significantly low. The (Yb/Sm)N, Ce/Ce*, and Eu/Eu* anomalies range from 1.0 to 227.0, 0 to 308, and 0.08 to 1.7 respectively. They are Hf-Y-HREE enriched and depleted zircons mainly crystallized in magmatic oxidized environments. They were mainly sorted from granitoids, syenites and kimberlites.

Assessing the supply potential of high-tech metals – A general method

The demand for some of the rarer elements in the Earth's crust, mostly from high-tech applications, is increasing rapidly. Many of these elements are produced exclusively as by-products resulting in potentially significant supply limitations. In this article, a general method for the assessment of the supply potential of such elements is developed from a conceptual model of the supply-chain. Namely, statistical and deterministic models are introduced to quantify both the variability in by-product concentrations in the relevant raw materials, as well as the effects of this variability on achievable recoveries. The assessment of uncertainties is implemented via Monte-Carlo-type simulations. Presentation of the results in availability curves ensures adaptability to future changes in market conditions, while extensive documentation of the assessment method, available as electronic supplementary material with this article, ensures reproducibility.A simple example is used to illustrate the complete estimation process. It shows that in addition to ensuring future adaptability of the results, availability curves are also useful for the assessment of the current supply regime of a given by-product. An elastic and inelastic regime might be distinguished – in the elastic regime, significant demand-driven increases in by-product supply are possible without increases in the production of the main product, while in the inelastic regime this is not the case. The method presented in this article is the first to enable such an assessment to be made in a reliable and transparent manner.

PYROLYSIS OF WASTE ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT (WEEE) FOR RECOVERING METALS AND ENERGY: PREVIOUS ACHIEVEMENTS AND CURRENT APPROACHES

The amount of collected Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Europe is growing about 7 wt.-% per year (20072012). It contains a number of economically relevant base, precious and high-tech metals. However, only a limited number of these metals can be recovered by currently applied recycling processes. Especially high-tech metals like gallium, germanium and tantalum get lost during the treatment of WEEE. The pyrolysis technology allows an accumulation of these metals from WEEE-fractions without oxidation as well as the generation of high calorific gases and liquids for energetic utilization. This paper provides a literature based review of lab and medium-scale investigations on pyrolysis processes of different WEEE-fractions like printed wiring boards (PWB) or plastics to outline opportunities and challenges for recovering critical metals from WEEE via pyrolysis. The key procedural challenges are dehalogenation, avoidance of highly-toxic emissions (mainly PBDD/F) as well as preparation and accumulation of metals for recycling processes.

Solid residues from Italian municipal solid waste incinerators: A source for “critical” raw materials

The incineration of municipal solid wastes is an important part of the waste management system along with recycling and waste disposal, and the solid residues produced after the thermal process have received attention for environmental concerns and the recovery of valuable metals. This study focuses on the Critical Raw Materials (CRM) content in solid residues from two Italian municipal waste incinerator (MSWI) plants. We sampled untreated bottom ash and fly ash residues, i.e. the two main outputs of common grate-furnace incinerators, and determined their total elemental composition with sensitive analytical techniques such as XRF and ICP-MS. After the removal of a few coarse metallic objects from bottom ashes, the corresponding ICP solutions were obtained using strong digestion methods, to ensure the dissolution of the most refractory components that could host significant amounts of precious metals and CRM. The integration of accurate chemical data with a substance flow analysis, which takes into account the mass balance and uncertainties assessment, indicates that bottom and fly ashes can be considered as a low concentration stream of precious and high-tech metals. The magnesium, copper, antimony and zinc contents are close to the corresponding values of a low-grade ore. The distribution of the elements flow between bottom and fly ash, and within different grain size fractions of bottom ash, is appraised. Most elements are enriched in the bottom ash flow, especially in the fine grained fractions. However, the calculated transfer coefficients indicate that Sb and Zn strongly partition into the fly ashes. The comparison with available studies indicates that the CRM concentrations in the untreated solid residues are comparable with those residues that undergo post-treatment beneficiations, e.g. separation between ferrous and non-ferrous fractions. The suggested separate collection of “fresh” bottom ash, which could be processed for further mineral upgrading, can constitute an attractive option of the waste management system, when physical–mechanical devices are not available or could not be implemented in old MSWI systems. The suggested procedure may lead to the improvement of recovery efficiency up to 83% for CRM and 94% for other valuable metals.

Determinants of the Price of High-Tech Metals: An Event Study

The growing demand for high-tech products has resulted in strong growth in demand for certain minor metals. In combination with production concentrated in China, this caused strong and unpredicted price movements in recent years. As a result, manufacturing companies have to cope with additional risks. However, the detailed reasons for the price development are only partially understood. Therefore, we analyzed empirically which determinants can be assigned to price movements and performed an event study on the high-tech metals neodymium, indium, and gallium. Based on our dataset of news items, we were able to find coinciding events to almost 90% of all price jumps (recall). We showed that if any information about these events occurred with a probability of over 50% there would also be a price jump within 10 days (precision). However, the classical set of price determinants has to be extended for these specific markets, as we found unorthodox factors like holidays or weather that may be indicators for price movements. Therefore, we hope that our study supports industry for instance in performing more informed short-term planning of metals purchasing based on information about specific events.

Phase associations and potential selective extraction methods for selected high-tech metals from ferromanganese nodules and crusts with siderophores

Deep-sea ferromanganese deposits contain a wide range of economically important metals. Ferromanganese crusts and nodules represent an important future resource, since they not only contain base metals such as Mn, Ni, Co, Cu and Zn, but are also enriched in critical or rare high-technology elements such as Li, Mo, Nb, W, the rare earth elements and yttrium (REY). These metals could be extracted from nodules and crusts as a by-product to the base metal production. However, there are no proper separation techniques available that selectively extract certain metals out of the carrier phases. By sequential leaching, we demonstrated that, except for Li, which is present in an easily soluble form, all other high-tech metals enriched in ferromanganese nodules and crusts are largely associated with the Fe-oxyhydroxide phases and only to subordinate extents with Mn-oxide phases. Based on this fact, we conducted selective leaching experiments with the Fe-specific organic ligand desferrioxamine-B, a naturally occurring and ubiquitous siderophore. We showed by leaching of ferromanganese nodules and crusts with desferrioxamine-B that a significant and selective extraction of high-tech metals such as Li, Mo, Zr, Hf and Ta is possible, while other elements like Fe and the base metals Mn, Ni, Cu, Co and Zn are not extracted to large extents. The set of selectively extracted elements can be extended to Nb and W if Mn and carbonate phases are stripped from the bulk nodule or crust prior to the siderophore leach by e.g. a sequential leaching technique. This combination of sequential leaches with a siderophore leach enhanced the extraction to 30–50% of each Mo, Nb, W and Ta from a mixed type Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) nodule and 40–80% from a diagenetic Peru Basin nodule, whilst only 5–10% Fe and even less Mn are extracted from the nodules. Li is extracted to about 60% from the CCZ nodule and a maximum of 80% Li is extracted from the Peru Basin nodule.Our pilot work on selective extraction of high-tech metals from marine ferromanganese nodules and crusts showed that specific metal-binding organic ligands may have promising potential in future processing technologies of these oxide deposits.

Biohydrometallurgy applied to exploitation of black shale resources: Overview of Bioshale FP6 European project

Bioshale project, co-funded by the European Commission (FP6 programme), started in October 2004 and finished in October 2007. The main objective of this project was to define innovative biotechnological processes for “eco-efficient” exploitation of black shale ores. The black shale ores contain base, precious and high-tech metals but also high contents of organic matter that handicap metal recovery by conventional techniques. Three world class black shale deposits were chosen as targets of the R&D actions. These include one deposit that existed under natural conditions (Talvivaara, Finland), one currently in process (Lubin, Poland) and one after mining (Mansfeld, Germany). The main technical aspects of the work plan can be summarized as follows: evaluation of the geological resources and selection of metal-bearing components; selection of biological consortia to be tested for metal recovery; assessment of bioprocessing routes, including hydrometallurgical processing for metals recovery; techno-economic evaluation of new processes including social and environmental impacts. An overview of the main results obtained by the 13 European partners (from 8 countries) involved in this completed research programme is given in this work.