List Of Critical Raw Materials Research Articles

Municipal waste incineration fly ashes: from a multi-element approach to market potential evaluation

BackgroundFly ashes from municipal solid waste incineration contain significant amounts of (technology critical) elements. Processes to recover Cu or Zn are already in practice, but it still remains difficult to evaluate the full secondary resource potential of the ashes. One reason is the absence of a worldwide comparable analytical basis for detailed market analyses. To encounter this, (i) an advice on how to analyse 65 elements after microwave-assisted digestion by ICP-OES and ICP-MS is delivered, (ii) the heterogeneity (hours to annual cycle) is evaluated for a incineration plant, (iii) leaching efficiency with three different eluents and (iv) the market potential of the elements as commodities are evaluated.Results and conclusionsAqua regia digestion was found to be sufficient to evaluated the recovery potential; except for the mass constituents Al, Si, Sn, Ti and the trace components Cr, Hf, Nb, U and W, for which HF-containing digestions delivered better recoveries. On different time scales, ashes were very homogenous and HCl- as well as H2SO4-supported leaching delivered, satisfying results within an hour (exceptions are, e.g., Bi and Sb). By applying characterisation factors of the life cycle assessment impact category “Resource depletion—minerals and metals” supplemented by the list of critical raw materials of the EU: Ag, Bi, Cd, Ga, In and Sb are most interesting elements to be recovered in future activities.

Novel adsorbents based on eggshell functionalized with iron oxyhydroxide for phosphorus removal from liquid effluents

Phosphorus is an important and irreplaceable macronutrient for biological processes and is on the “list of Critical Raw Materials” of the European Union. Accumulation in water bodies requires an extra effort to promote its recovery. This study aims to synthesize, characterize and test a reliable adsorbent in acidic to neutral conditions. Several chemical modifications are tested to select the best adsorbent. Through the screening phase, it is possible to conclude that the chemical modification of calcined eggshell with magnesium and iron (III) does not improve the adsorption capacity. Thus, the material produced with 2/3 of iron and 1/3 of calcined eggshell reveals the best properties, OFeCES.0.5 (specific surface area of 270 m2/g) and performance to proceed with the tests. The influence of initial pH and adsorbent dosage is investigated to determine the best operating conditions. The adsorbent revealed better performance in acidic conditions (pH < 6) than in basic medium. Langmuir-Freundlich model reveals the best fitting (R2 = 0.989), with a maximum adsorption capacity of 69.5 mg/g. The pseudo-first-order model describes the adsorption kinetic, with constants between 0.0353 and 0.0126 1/min, for an initial concentration of 50 and 400 mg P-PO4/L. The adsorbent selected is regenerated with an efficiency of 50 % using an alkaline solution. In contact with a real effluent, the iron oxyhydroxide removes 50 % of phosphate. This work shows that iron oxyhydroxide with calcined eggshell has the potential as an adsorbent to remove phosphate from wastewaters.

Securing Platinum-Group Metals for Transport Low-Carbon Transition

Summary Fuel cell technology is the key to transport low-carbon transition. It depends on the catalysis from platinum-group metals, the rarest metals on Earth. However, due to the limited reserve, it is critical to evaluate whether global platinum resources can meet the increasing demand. This paper aims to account whether current platinum resources can support future fuel cell vehicle deployment for 140 countries for the period 2000–2100 by establishing a technology-rich, bottom-up model. It is found that, under a wide range of scenarios, the primary resource demand is significantly lower than the supply capacity at the global level. This result confirms that fuel cell vehicles have the potential to significantly contribute to global decarbonization strategies. However, challenges exist at regional and national levels. Most regions will rely heavily on resource import from the few countries with substantial resource endowments but with political instability, implying potential supply risks.

The Eco-Costs of Material Scarcity, a Resource Indicator for LCA, Derived from a Statistical Analysis on Excessive Price Peaks

The availability of resources is crucial for the socio-economic stability of our society. For more than two decades, there was a debate on how to structure this issue within the context of life-Cycle assessment (LCA). The classical approach with LCA is to describe “scarcity” for future generations (100–1000 years) in terms of absolute depletion. The problem, however, is that the long-term availability is simply not known (within a factor of 100–1000). Outside the LCA community, the short-term supply risks (10–30 years) were predicted, resulting in the list of critical raw materials (CRM) of the European Union (EU), and the British risk list. The methodology used, however, cannot easily be transposed and applied into LCA calculations. This paper presents a new approach to the issue of short-term material supply shortages, based on subsequent sudden price jumps, which can lead to socio-economic instability. The basic approach is that each resource is characterized by its own specific supply chain with its specific price volatility. The eco-costs of material scarcity are derived from the so-called value at risk (VAR), a well-known statistical risk indicator in the financial world. This paper provides a list of indicators for 42 metals. An advantage of the system is that it is directly related to business risks, and is relatively easy to understand. A disadvantage is that “statistics of the past” might not be replicated in the future (e.g., when changing from structural oversupply to overdemand, or vice versa, which appeared an issue for two companion metals over the last 30 years). Further research is recommended to improve the statistics.

Significance ranking method applied to some EU critical raw materials in a circular economy – priorities for achieving sustainability

Raw materials are very important for the development of economies and also to assure quality of life. Due to our production and consumption patterns new challenges emerged. The consumption of raw materials is very high, what raises important issues such as the depletion of resources, instability of prices and markets, risk of rupture of supply and other environmental, economic and social impacts. The European Union as many other regions of the world are implementing some strategies to overcome this problem, being the most recent the circular economy package, which intends to maintain materials as long as possible in the economic cycle, avoiding the use of new resources. There is a list of critical raw materials for EU and in this work the methodology of pairwise comparison was applied to a set of those raw materials for determining the importance of each taking in consideration several factors, such import reliance, end of life, economic importance, etc. The main goal was to develop a method based on pairwise comparison in a case of European Union to define priorities for acting, enhancing the achievement of sustainable solutions. It was also performed a sensitivity analysis. It was possible to conclude that the top position for the majority of the several raw materials does not change with the weights. Tantalum, Tungsten, Baryte and Antimony are always in the top positions.

Coking coal mining investment: Boosting European Union's raw materials initiative

In 2014, the list of Critical Raw Materials for the European Union included for the first time an energy fossil resource: coking coal. Its presence was due to its high economic importance, being the second raw material in the list immediately after tungsten, although with a low supply risk as Australia and USA were the main exporters of coking coal to the European Union in recent years. However, on the 2017 list, coking coal is considered a borderline case. Although it narrowly misses the economic importance threshold, for the sake of caution, coking coal is kept on the list and thus included in the table. However, it will be phased out from the next list should it fail to meet the criteria in full.Successive depletion of coking coal deposits generates the need to develop new mines in order to maintain the production level of coal mining companies for the years to come. The process of building new mines is high capital-intensive, with long terms needed for the different investment steps. That is why providing a tool for the coal mining companies that will allow quick discrimination between feasible and unfeasible projects, in order to reduce time consuming analysis together with their costs, while shortening mine development cycles is a critical issue.Trying to boost the European Union's Raw Material Initiative by complementing its efforts from an economic perspective, this paper provides an exhaustive analysis of present day coking coal mining investment. To achieve this goal, it analyses in first place the trends and evolution of coking coal prices in order to contrast the forecasts used by the different projects. Secondly, it will study five ready-to-go coking coal projects around the world: the Lublin underground project in Poland; Kodiak underground project in the USA; Amaam opencast project in Russia; Makhado opencast project in South Africa; and Crown Mountain opencast project in Canada.Conclusions of this research clearly state that it is possible to establish a relationship between capital expense and clean coal production in opencast projects and that the predicted yield and the transport costs are critical parameters in order to assess the operating costs of a coking coal mining investment project. Finally, the financial outcomes claimed by the projects are compromised due to the lack of adequate price forecasting and to the use of fictitious discount rates for calculating the Net Present Value.

EU methodology for critical raw materials assessment: Policy needs and proposed solutions for incremental improvements

Raw materials form the basis of Europe's economy to ensure jobs and competitiveness, and they are essential for maintaining and improving quality of life. Although all raw materials are important, some of them are of more concern than others, thus the list of critical raw materials (CRMs) for the EU, and the underlying European Commission (EC) criticality assessment methodology, are key instruments in the context of the EU raw materials policy.For the next update of the CRMs list in 2017, the EC is considering to apply the overall methodology already used in 2011 and 2014, but with some modifications. Keeping the same methodological approach is a deliberate choice in order to prioritise the comparability with the previous two exercises, effectively monitor trends, and maintain the highest possible policy relevance. As the EC's in-house science service, the Directorate General Joint Research Centre (DG JRC) identified aspects of the EU criticality methodology that could be adapted to better address the needs and expectations of the resulting CRMs list to identify and monitor critical raw materials in the EU.The goal of this paper is to discuss the specific elements of the EC criticality methodology that were adapted by DG JRC, highlight their novelty and/or potential outcomes, and discuss them in the context of criticality assessment methodologies available internationally.

Critical materials in the 21 century

Critical materials represent mostly metals having a big importance for the future of the economy in the European countries. It is very difficult to replace these critical metals by other metals. Because of their wide application, the demand for these metals is increased, but the production cannot follow their growing consumption. Rare earth elements (REE) belong to critical materials. They include 17 elements, very similar in terms of their chemical and physical properties due to their mineralogical structure (the best-known are lanthanum and thorium, which is radioactive). REE are divided into elements with a lower atomic mass and elements with a higher atomic mass. Heavier metals show a significantly lower presence in the upper earth crust. In 2010, the share of the REE production in China in the global production amounted to 97 %, constituting a near-monopoly in the world market. In different studies, the term “Strategic” is often used instead “of “critical” materials. The materials for military application are called “Strategic” (nickel). In comparison to strategic metals, critical materials have a big importance for the national economies of European countries (platinum group of metals, rare earth elements, cobalt). The European Commission prepared a strategic development plan for critical materials in the next twenty years. The rare earth elements The rare earth elements include 15 elements (Z=57 through 71) and Yttrium (Z=39) and scandium. Because of their reactivity and similarity, the REEs were found to be difficult to obtain.. Lanthanide elements with a low atomic number are generally more abundant in the earth crust than those with high atomic numbers. World demand for rare earth elements is estimated by Humphries (CRS Report for Congress) at 134.000 tons per year, with the global production of around 114.000 tons annually. Humphries has reported in 2010 that there is no rare earth mine production in the United States. The major uses for rare earth elements include applications in auto catalysts, petroleum refining, metal alloys, cell phones, portable DVDs, etc. Permanent magnets containing neodymium, gadolinium and dysprosium are used in numerous electrical components and generators for wind turbines. The primary defense application (underwater mine detection, satellite power and communication systems, radar systems,etc.) use new materials: Neodymium Iron Boron, Samarium Cobalt. REEs extraction from monazite is performed by dissolution in a hot concentrated base or acid solutions. After cooling, the hydroxides of REEs and thorium are recovered by filtration, and thorium is separated by dissolution and selective precipitation. Metallurgy of indium Indium belongs to the group of rare earth elements with a low melting point. Some addition of indium increases the strength, hardness and corrosion resistance of alloys. The most known producers are situated in Belgium, Canada, Russia, France and Japan. Indium is used as coating on metals applied in difficult operation conditions, and in semiconductor techniques for the production of diodes. It is formed as a semi-product after pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical treatment of sulphidic raw materials. Indium can be used with other valuable metals such as vanadium, thallium, gallium, germanium, and cadmium. The coating process based on Indium is performed by an electrolytic treatment on the surface. Metallurgy of yttrium Yttrium compounds found interesting application in many fields. In particular, yttrium is used in the manufacture of superconductors, in super alloys of nickel and cobalt, and solid oxide fuel cells. Yttrium oxide has a high melting point and is used in ceramics. The compounds of yttrium are also used as catalysts. The growing industrial application of the rare earth elements led to a growing interest in finding new technologies for their recoveries. The selective dissolution of yttrium from lanthanum is performed by ammonium carbonate leaching. Conclusion The EU Raw materials Initiative was decided to identify a list of critical raw materials at the EU level. The EU-report describes a selection of 41 minerals and metals. Then, 14 elements were chosen as critical materials fort the economy of the European countries in the next twenty years. The future use of REEs is expected to be increased in the European countries. About 90 % of metal alloys are produced in China. The price of rare earth elements is reduced for the consumers in China in comparison to some companies in the USA and Europe. Therefore, the European countries and the USA have protested against this situation. The selective winning of rare earth elements is the most important aim in the processing of raw materials. The combination of pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical methods might be a new way of solving this problem in the European countries.

Economic Importance, Environmental and Supply Risks on Imported Resources in Lithuanian Industry

Secure raw material supply is one of the most important topics for industry. Growing economies such as China, India, Brazil and others increase the global demand and in the same time the competition for resources. In order to undertake appropriate actions the most important raw materials should be identified. The aim of this study was to identify the most important raw materials for Lithuanian economy in terms of economic importance, supply and environmental risks. The methodology used in the study relies on three sustainability dimensions accordingly expressed by three indicators: Economic Importance (Economic dimension); Supply Risk (Social dimension); Environmental Country Risk (Environmental dimension). The methodology used to define these indicators on imported resources for Lithuanian industry was adapted from report on critical raw materials for European Union (Report of the Ad-hoc Working Group on defining critical raw materials 2010) published by European Commission in June 2010. Critical raw materials are considered to be economically important and the subject to a higher risk of supply interruption. All materials investigated in this study were combined into five groups: chemicals, metals, building materials, paper, paperboard and wood, other materials. Only the imported raw materials were selected for further analysis. The significance of raw material import was considered as important according to the ratio of production and consumption of certain material. After the analysis of statistical information about raw materials import in Lithuania and the actual countries of origin of these resources twenty one raw material was selected for further investigation. According to the results of assessment the list of critical raw materials for Lithuania was indentified. Results of the investigation showed that top five materials in terms of economic importance, supply and environmental country risks for Lithuanian economy are: crude oil, natural gas, sulphur, caustic soda, cast iron.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.60.2.1308