Material Streams Research Articles

Kinetics of γ-LiAlO2 Formation out of Li2O-Al2O3 Melt—A Molecular Dynamics-Informed Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamic Study

Slags generated from pyrometallurgical processing of spent Li-ion batteries are reservoirs of Li compounds that, on recycling, can reintegrate Li into the material stream. In this context, γ-LiAlO2 is a promising candidate that potentially increases recycling efficiency due to its high Li content and favorable morphology for separation. However, its solidification kinetics depends on melt compositions and cooling strategies. The Engineered Artificial Minerals approach aims to optimize process conditions that maximize the desired solid phases. To realize this goal, understanding the coupled influence of external cooling kinetics and internal kinetics of solid/liquid interface migration and mass and thermal diffusion on solidification is critical. In this work, the solidification of γ-LiAlO2 from a Li2O-Al2O3 melt is computationally investigated by applying a non-equilibrium thermodynamic model to understand the influence of varying processing conditions on crystallization kinetics. A strategy is illustrated that allows the effective utilization of thermodynamic information obtained by the CALPHAD approach and molecular dynamics-generated diffusion coefficients to simulate kinetic-dependent solidification. Model calculations revealed that melts with compositions close to γ-LiAlO2 remain comparatively unaffected by the external heat extraction strategies due to rapid internal kinetic processes. Kinetic limitations, especially diffusion, become significant for high cooling rates as the melt composition deviates from the stoichiometric compound.

Supply security beyond mines and scrap recycling: valorization potential of metallurgical residues.

In the context of the European Critical Raw Materials Act, this work attempts to demonstrate the potential of residual material flows from non-ferrous metallurgy and their possible contribution to the supply security of metals by locally available new secondary resources, assuming technically and economically viable processing. Based on the aluminium, zinc, copper and lead industries, the resulting waste streams are discussed and, in particular, the complex process consisting of physical, chemical and metallurgical steps is described. Their diversity, be it slags, dusts or even sludges, has a wide variety of morphologies and compositions due to the process of generation. In the past, many concepts for reprocessing were investigated, but the goal was usually only the recovery of one target element or to avoid landfilling by using it, for example, as a building material, whereby the metals contained are completely lost. If the target is the extraction of valuables, the required interdisciplinary process development must be based on an in-depth characterization to understand the behaviour of metals and trace elements in possible extraction steps and also to develop suitable strategies for influencing the behaviour of target elements with the aim of extraction. This starts with an in-depth comprehension of the formation process, which is the subject of this article and has a direct influence on the composition and morphology of the materials, thus forming the basis for understanding the behaviour in potential recycling processes. Furthermore, typical compositions of the residual material streams, sources and, if available, quantities are shown and, in summary, an attempt is made to evaluate the materials in a SWOT analysis and to address the challenges in developing extraction steps for processing. While mine tailings are mostly found outside of Europe, the potential of the residual materials from metallurgy is local due to the processing of the concentrates in Europe. This leads to several potential advantages in a possible reprocessing, such as no or shorter transport routes, which is linked to lower quantity of emissions, defined volume and known composition, no geopolitical risk, conservation of primary resources, and increasing Europe's sustainability through a more comprehensive use of the raw materials.This article is part of the discussion meeting issue 'Sustainable metals: science and systems'.

Polymer Flooding Reduces Emissions and Energy Consumption in the North Sea

_ This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 218231, How Polymer Flooding Reduces CO2 Emissions and Energy Consumption at the Captain Field: An Exergy-Return-on-Exergy-Investment Case Study,” by Tormod Skauge, SPE, and Arne Skauge, SPE, Energy Research Norway, and Nancy Lugo, Ithaca Energy UK, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. _ Insights into the energy efficiency and environmental performance of the extraction of heavy oil from the Captain field in the UK sector of the North Sea are gained using life-cycle assessment (LCA), which incorporates the concept of exergy-return-on-exergy-investment (ERoEI). The LCA allows for separation of the process into material and work streams, assessing the effect of each separately. In the complete paper, the authors compare waterflooding (WF) to polymer flooding (PF) as primary extraction strategies. Introduction The Captain field is approximately 145 km northeast of Aberdeen, Scotland. The reservoirs lie at shallow depths of approximately 900 m true vertical depth with correspondingly low temperatures of 31°C and low pressures of 87 bar. A primary challenge is the relatively viscous oil of 40–140 cp. The field was initially developed with long horizontal wells and downhole pumps. Viscous oil implies mobility challenges, however, and water injection could lead to unstable displacement, early water breakthrough, and possible coning issues. After a successful pilot PF at Captain during 2010–2017, a staged enhanced oil recovery (EOR) development approach was adopted in 2016 aiming to extend the pilot polymer-solution-injection scheme to the full field through a phased development. Following the pilot study, the Captain EOR project was split into Stage 1 and Stage 2. The first stage involved drilling of five producers and two EOR injectors by 2022. The second stage included some brownfield modifications across the three Captain installations (two installations and a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel) and a significant expansion in the subsea area. The complete paper concentrates on the expansion in the subsea areas, Areas B and C. The methodology of the study, including the development of simulation cases, LCA, exergy analysis, system boundaries, material and work streams, and CO2 emissions, is detailed in the complete paper. Production Profiles The Stage 2 EOR development evaluates PF for Areas B and C. The baseline is WF with fully produced water reinjection. WF was scheduled to begin in January 2024 and to end in December 2099. The PF case also was slated to begin in January 2024 and to end in 2035 and 2034 for Area B and Area C, respectively. The field is operated on pressure maintenance, and the voidage replacement ratio is kept close to 1.0. This means that the PF injects more liquid than the WF case during the first 5 years of injection when the oil production is higher for PF. After polymer injection ends, the PF case injects less liquid than the WF case. In Area B, water cut is high from the start for the WF case. Because of the high mobility of the water, it fingers through the oil. In contrast, when polymer is injected, the water cut falls to approximately 80% and does not reach the starting value of 94.1% before 7 years, more than 2.5 years after having stopped the polymer injection in this area. The low water cut is the result of production of a large oil bank generated by the improved sweep and mobility reduction of the injected polymer.

Role of Policy in the Management of Smartphones among Undergraduates in Nigeria Higher Institutions of Learning

Smartphones have become a necessity in today’s world. Majority of our undergraduate students make use of their smartphones to take notes in their classes, do assignments and other class related works. Studies and observations have shown that students use their smartphones for other activities like online frauds, visit to sites that can corrupt their minds and even waste their precious time on video watching, streaming and downloading of inappropriate materials and films that are injurious to them which eventually have a negative impact on their studies. In view of the aforementioned, the formulation of policies to guide the management of smartphones by undergraduate students in our higher institution of learning is therefore very germane at this time. It has been postulated that Policy makers should ban the use of smartphones among the undergraduate students in our higher institutions of learning but some other concerns are of the opinion that it should not be banned but regulated. Customized tabs with WIFI capabilities should be provided to enable students to go online for their research activities and classes thereby restricting them to their academics and prohibiting them from accessing forbidden sites. Institutional customized tabs will block some harmful materials and prevent them from unnecessary sites. Institutions should also allocate fixed megabytes to students for their educational programs. This will inculcate discipline into the minds of the students and make them to use their online allocations for necessary things.

Atmospheric escape in hot Jupiters under sub-Alfvénic interactions

ABSTRACT Hot Jupiters might reside inside the Alfvén surface of their host star wind, where the stellar wind is dominated by magnetic energy. The implications of such a sub-Alfvénic environment for atmospheric escape are not fully understood. Here, we employ 3D radiation-magnetohydrodynamic simulations and Ly-$\alpha$ transit calculations to investigate atmospheric escape properties of magnetized hot Jupiters. By varying the planetary magnetic field strength ($B_\mathrm{p}$) and obliquity, we find that the structure of the outflowing atmosphere transitions from a magnetically unconfined regime, where a tail of material streams from the nightside of the planet, to a magnetically confined regime, where material escapes through the polar regions. Notably, we find an increase in the planet escape rate with $B_\mathrm{p}$ in both regimes, with a local decrease when the planet transitions from the unconfined to the confined regime. Contrary to super-Alfvénic interactions, which predicted two polar outflows from the planet, our sub-Alfvénic models show only one significant polar outflow. In the opposing pole, the planetary field lines connect to the star. Finally, our synthetic Ly-$\alpha$ transits show that both the red-wing and blue-wing absorptions increase with $B_\mathrm{p}$. Furthermore, there is a degeneracy between $B_\mathrm{p}$ and the stellar wind mass-loss rate when considering absorption of individual Ly-$\alpha$ wings. This degeneracy can be broken by considering the ratio between the blue-wing and the red-wing absorptions, as stronger stellar winds result in higher blue-to-red absorption ratios. We show that, by using the absorption ratios, Ly-$\alpha$ transits can probe stellar wind properties and exoplanetary magnetic fields.

Development of a method for shredder characterisation and dynamic control of the output material stream

Development of a method for shredder characterisation and dynamic control of the output material stream

Practical experience to theoretical innovation: A model for recovering metal resources from industrial solid waste − A case study of copper smelting slag

Industrial solid waste (ISW), a byproduct of modern industrial production, poses significant challenges to sustainable development due to limitations in economic and technical capabilities. Despite containing valuable metal resources, the lack of a coherent approach to its treatment has hindered progress in addressing this longstanding issue. In response, we introduce an innovative model for metal resource recovery from ISW (ISWMRR), with a specific focus on copper smelting slag (CSS) as a prevalent example. This study underscores the efficacy of mineral phase reconstruction technology in converting CSS from a liability to an asset, thereby ensuring a sustainable stream of high-quality raw materials for green steel production amid declining iron ore reserves. Experimental findings indicated that employing the ISWMRR model enabled the successful production of iron products from CSS, yielding an iron concentrate with a TFe (total iron) fraction of 87.21 wt% and iron recovery of 91.24%. This approach facilitated the cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and efficient recovery of iron resources from CSS. By furnishing a novel theoretical framework, our research seeks to guide scientists and industry stakeholders engaged in ISW management.

Forecasting wind turbine blade waste with material composition and geographical distribution: Methodology and application to Germany

Wind energy has become a key player in global electricity generation. The management of end-of-life (EoL) wind turbine blade (WTB) material streams is a challenge that requires urgent attention. The aim of this study was to forecast the future EoL WTB material, composition and geographical distribution of decommissioned on- and offshore wind turbines in Germany. Based on the German core energy market data register and a review of forecasting methods, a hybrid approach was developed that combines a statistical, deterministic and stochastic model with three scenarios to assume the service life of wind turbines in operation. This method was applied to Germany to estimate the mass of WTBs until 2050. The results show that a total EoL WTB material mass of 698 kt is expected, consisting of 492 kt of glass fibre reinforced polymer WTBs and 206 kt of hybrid WTB material with a carbon fibre reinforced polymer mass share of approximately 12.4 kt. From 2024 onwards, a displacement of 64.4 km in the centre of gravity of the expected EoL WTB material stream towards the north-west coast of Germany could be observed. The authors demonstrate the novelty of the method and findings in relation to circular economy paths of EoL WTB material.

Thermodynamic analysis of a solar-assisted supercritical water gasification system for poly-generation of hydrogen-heat-power production from waste plastics

The resource utilization of waste plastics is an effective approach to address the issue of energy shortage. In this study, a comprehensive disposal system for polypropylene plastics was designed by supercritical water gasification coupled with a solar heat collector for poly-generation of power, hydrogen, and heat. The study first demonstrated the transfer behavior and exchange capacity of different streams throughout the entire system. It was found that the disposal system maintained mass conservation by checking the material streams. The thermodynamic results indicated that the largest exergy losses occurred in the oxidizer, accounting for 50.2 % of the total system exergy loss, followed by the heat exchanger at 14.51 %, with other units remaining below 10 %. A sensitivity analysis demonstrated that feedstock concentration significantly impacted exergy efficiency and output steams. Exergy efficiency rose from 49.5 % to 58 % as feedstock concentration increased from 5 wt% to 20 wt%. In contrast, changes in oxidation temperature had a slightly impact, with output power rising slightly from 9089 kW to 9598 kW. The effect of gasification temperature was intermediate between them. Finally, an optimal gasification conditions achieved 58.47 % exergy efficiency at 800 °C gasification, 960 °C oxidation with 5 wt% feed, producing 9496 kW of power, 76.2 kg/h of hydrogen, and 144.7 t/h of hot water.

Keratin from Animal By-Products: Structure, Characterization, Extraction and Application-A Review.

Keratin is a structural fibrous protein and the core constituent of animal by-products from livestock such as wool, feathers, hooves, horns, and pig bristles. This natural polymer is also the main component of human hair and is present at an important percentage in human and animal skin. Significant amounts of keratin-rich animal tissues are discarded worldwide each year, ca. 12 M tons, and the share used for keratin extraction and added-value applications is still very low. An important stream of new potential raw materials, represented by animal by-products and human hair, is thus being lost, while a large-scale valorization could contribute to a circular bioeconomy and to the reduction in the environmental fingerprint of those tissues. Fortunately, scientific research has made much important progress in the last 10-15 years in the better understanding of the complex keratin architecture and its variability among different animal tissues, in the development of tailored extraction processes, and in the screening of new potential applications. Hence, this review aims at a discussion of the recent findings in the characterization of keratin and keratin-rich animal by-product structures, as well as in keratin recovery by conventional and emerging techniques and advances in valorization in several fields.

Modeling of material and energy inputs in the life cycle of a vehicle

The paper focuses on the analysis of the environmental impacts related to the production, operation, decommissioning of vehicles as well as servicing and repairs of cars in real conditions of their use. The authors’ presented mathematical model that was implemented in original numerical program EN-VEHICLE that enables the analysis of energy consumption and emission loads related to material inputs in the entire life cycle of a passenger car. It is a tool from the Life Cycle Assessment category that aims at the effective inclusion of environmental impacts in the decision-making process. The developed program allows for a quantitative interpretation of the calculation results in terms of the environmental safety in each of the phases and throughout the life cycle of the vehicle, taking into account the possibility of supplying the vehicle system with additional material streams derived from recycling and recovery, and introduced both during the construction phase and during the car operation phase. In the presented tool, linear algebra and matrix analysis were used in modeling the vehicle life cycle system. The results of the implementation of the mathematical model were presented in the form of a regression function that allows for approximation of selected empirical data. The regression analysis was used to verify the material characteristics. The tool can be used for a comprehensive comparative assessment of the environmental impact of a passenger car from different production periods. In addition, it can be used to forecast the environmental effects of changes in the material structure determining the production technology and, consequently, having a significant impact on the entire life cycle of the vehicle as well as energy and ecological parameters.

The effect of seasonal variation, flow conditions and erosion forces on suspended matter fluxes from boreal gypsum-treated agricultural fields

Like many other bodies of water, the Baltic Sea is facing a severe eutrophication problem, the excessive nutrient load currently originating primarily from agriculture. Gypsum treatment has shown promising results in reducing phosphorus and suspended sediment loads, especially in fine-textured soils, but its efficacy has not been investigated on catchment scale to any wide extent. This study examines the functionality of the gypsum treatment in an agriculture-dominated boreal catchment in the Archipelago Sea basin. The relation between turbidity and hydro-climatological factors was analysed during different years and seasons and the effect of stream erosion during different flow stages was investigated by applying 2D hydraulic modeling. A special focus was given to deviating winter conditions and freeze-thaw cycles.The results highlight the dependency of stream water turbidity on the discharge and the potential negative impact of the climate change-altered winter conditions of the hemiboreal climate zone on gypsum treatment effectiveness. The turbidity increased even more during high winter discharges, compared to other seasons suggesting that the more frequent freeze-thaw cycles and precipitation coming as rain during the unvegetated period increase erosion challenging the gypsum efficacy. Modelling results revealed that the increased erosional power during very high discharges caused settled material resuspension or stream bed or bank erosion leading to a cumulative increase in turbidity at downstream, an issue needing further research. Demonstrating the real and long-term effects of nutrient reduction measures requires catchment scale investigations over years, considering climatological factors. Based on this study, local and short-term investigations can potentially lead to over-simplified interpretations.

Challenges in the Recycling of Battery Casing Materials

AbstractCurrent recycling methods for the very popular lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) focus mainly on recovering valuable metals such as cobalt and nickel for economic reasons. The cell casing components, which are mainly made of aluminum, can make a significant contribution to achieving political recycling targets. Mechanical processes are used to separate the casing components from the overall LIB material stream. The aluminum, copper, steel, and plastic components are then further concentrated into various potential products by, e.g., magnetic separation, eddy current separation, and air classification. Considering the benefits of additional stress to compact the metal parts, the knowledge gained from the individual sorting steps can be combined to form a process flow chart.

Disinformation and "hate speech" in the online media of Kazakhstan (results of monitoring 2022)

The article examines the problem of using the "language of hostility" and disinformation in the media texts of the Kazakh media, as well as the problem of stuffing fake news during the political events of January 2022 in Kazakhstan. The goals of disinformation are determined and the effects on the mass audience are evaluated. During the tragic events at the beginning of the year, the Internet was turned off in the country, which led to an information vacuum. After the restoration of communication, a stream of fake materials of various formats (audio, video, images and messages on social networks) began, the purpose of which was to incite fears among the population. The platforms WhatsApp, YouTube, Telegram and VKontakte were investigated. Case analysis of texts was also used as part of the analysis. The materials were selected by random sampling. Various criteria were taken into account for the selection of publications, including attendance, the toxicity of comments, the number of articles and posts in online publications and social networks, as well as genres of materials and the presence of elements of hate speech. The purpose of this study is to comprehensively analyze the destructive consequences of disinformation recorded in the Kazakh and Russian media during the attempt to forcibly seize power in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The following methods were used: critical analysis of scientific literature, media monitoring, discourse analysis, and the method of comparative analysis. Case analysis of texts was also used. In 2022, Kazakhstan faced new geopolitical and information challenges: armed border conflicts, disinformation and "hate speech". All these risks have led to an even greater polarization of Kazakh society, socio-political tension and a decrease in the level of trust in the official media. The key factor in changing the situation may be increasing the information literacy of the population and its promotion through cooperation with civil society institutions, the implementation of universal media education programs. Given the volume of data and the amount of information processed, it is difficult to fit the whole situation and analyze how the discourse of "hate speech" and disinformation was built. The repeatedly disseminated unreliable and contradictory information significantly increased the tension of the network media field, contributing to a greater polarization of opinions about the extraordinary event and the aggression of participants in the information exchange.

The Value of a Mobilities Lens in Studying the Water-Heritage Nexus

The Value of a Mobilities Lens in Studying the Water-Heritage Nexus

Active-mixing printhead for on-the-fly composition adjustment of multi component materials in Direct Ink Writing

Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing (MMAM) enables the grading of material properties and the integration of functions within printed parts. While most MMAM methods are limited to process single-component or pre-mixed multi-component materials, the in-process mixing and extrusion of multi-component materials enables innovative material properties and use cases. When processing liquid multi-component materials, the individual component streams need to be homogenized in-process, but the required volume in conventional passive mixing hinders rapid transitions in material composition. In this paper, a two component printhead is presented which combines an active mixing approach with a continuous composition adjustment for a third additive. The approach to control the mixing composition is to influence the hydrodynamic equilibrium of individual material streams before merging them near the point of extrusion. The printhead’s functionality is verified in terms of mixing homogeneity and transition speed between material compositions.

Forecasting solar wind disturbances and geomagnetic storms from ground-based cosmic ray measurements

This work reports on the methods developed by our group at ShICRA SB RAS to forecast negative manifestations of space weather from ground-based measurements of cosmic rays. Such manifestations are registered on the Earth in the form of decreases in galactic cosmic rays known as the Forbush effects, various types of geomagnetic and ionospheric disturbances, as well as auroras. Only the latters are directly visible to the naked eye, while the rest can only be detected with the help of various instruments. These occurrences are all caused by passage through the Earth’s orbit, such as the substantial influxes of charged particles from both solar and interplanetary sources, interplanetary shock waves, ejections of solar material and high-speed solar wind streams, all of which are attributed to the level of solar flares and coronal activity. The state of near-Earth space weather is determined by their presence. To monitor this state, we use data collected from ground-based cosmic ray stations and employ multiple methods to analyse these measurements. Additionally, we incorporate data from the Dst-index of the geomagnetic field and measurements of the interplanetary environmental parameters gathered by ACE, WIND, SOHO and DSCOVR spacecraft at the L1 libration point to confirm events. This has led to the development of techniques for predicting terrestrial effects of space weather in the short-term (1-3 days). Our findings suggest that it is feasible to predict the occurrence of severe geomagnetic storms in real-time through the utilisation of solely ground-based measurements from cosmic ray stations.

Fundamental drying and agglomeration experiments with bio-fraction and refuse derived fuel for the development of pyrolysis reactor feed.

The EU's circular economy concept necessitates increasing the recycling ratio of municipal solid wastes. There are many existing mechanical-biological processing plants in Hungary for the preparation of residual municipal solid wastes (RMSWs). The two most important products of these plants are the bio-fraction and the refuse derived fuel (RDF). Currently, there are problems with both of these material streams in Hungary, since most of the bio-fraction is still landfilled, and the local thermal utilisation of the RDF has not been implemented yet. The high moisture content of the produced bio-fraction and RDF causes difficulties for the downstream operations; therefore, there is recent engineering interest in drying and agglomeration of these materials. The authors have carried out systematic and parallel drying and briquetting experimental series to study the effect of the material, material composition, mass (volume or surface) of the material, particle size distribution and pre-treatment with a cutting mill on drying intensity in a 1 m3 oven and their effect on briquettability by a laboratory briquette press. The initial slope of the relative moisture loss as function of time was determined. Process engineering design methods of convective hot air-drying can be further developed taking into account the research results. Results can be used for the design of the feed of a pyrolysis reactor once reactor experiments have provided the optimal feed requirements.

Sensor-based characterization of construction and demolition waste at high occupancy densities using synthetic training data and deep learning.

Sensor-based monitoring of construction and demolition waste (CDW) streams plays an important role in recycling (RC). Extracted knowledge about the composition of a material stream helps identifying RC paths, optimizing processing plants and form the basis for sorting. To enable economical use, it is necessary to ensure robust detection of individual objects even with high material throughput. Conventional algorithms struggle with resulting high occupancy densities and object overlap, making deep learning object detection methods more promising. In this study, different deep learning architectures for object detection (Region-based CNN/Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN), You only look once (YOLOv3), Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD)) are investigated with respect to their suitability for CDW characterization. A mixture of brick and sand-lime brick is considered as an exemplary waste stream. Particular attention is paid to detection performance with increasing occupancy density and particle overlap. A method for the generation of synthetic training images is presented, which avoids time-consuming manual labelling. By testing the models trained on synthetic data on real images, the success of the method is demonstrated. Requirements for synthetic training data composition, potential improvements and simplifications of different architecture approaches are discussed based on the characteristic of the detection task. In addition, the required inference time of the presented models is investigated to ensure their suitability for use under real-time conditions.

Consuming responsibly: Prioritising responsible consumption behaviours in Australia

Human behaviour is at the centre of unsustainable consumption and production. Responsible consumption behaviours must therefore be at the centre of the solution. However, because it is inefficient for policymakers and practitioners, and ineffective for users, to attempt to target all responsible consumption behaviours simultaneously in a given initiative, some form of prioritisation is necessary. Through a combination of collaborative workshops and surveys with key stakeholders, this study applied established methods of prioritisation to identify a ‘long list’ of 84 responsible consumption behaviours across three material streams – fashion, electronics and furniture. The ‘long list’ was then taken to a prioritisation summit with government, academic, business, and community stakeholders. The behaviours were rated against explicit prioritisation criteria related to likelihood of adoption, timing, impact and potential system reach. This yielded a final ‘short list’ of seven prioritised behaviours, including a mixture of achievable consumer behaviours that can be realised in the short-term, as well as larger-scale and longer-term manufacturer- and government-related behaviours supporting fundamental design and policy shifts. By drawing on the collective knowledge and expertise of academic and non-academic experts, the study identified and prioritised behaviours to reduce material resource consumption in Australia that are impactful and transformative, while also being practical and realistic to implement.