Figure 6 - uploaded by Markus A Reuter
Content may be subject to copyright.
Overview fl ow sheet 9 of the industrial plant and main groups of technologies that were used to recycle 1153 cars, including various main recyclate and intermediate process streams and the generalized composition of the unrecyclable fl uff stream obtained after extensive treatment. Each of the elements in the numerous compounds, materials, and metals had to balance to create a consistent overall mass balance. This balance was achieved by data reconciliation incorporating all analysis standard deviations of samples of all streams, materials, and compounds. This level of detail and understanding lies at the core of quantifying recycling rates, system performance, and system improvements, as well as calibrating models.
Source publication
Ensuring the continued availability of materials for manufactured products requires comprehensive systems to recapture resources from end-of-life and wastewater products. To design such systems, it is critical to account for the complexities of extracting desired materials from multicomponent products and waste streams. Toward that end, we have con...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... addition, the model results were used to guide DfR and recycling fl ow sheet confi guration for multimaterial SLC designs. 6 , 8 We also organized and managed a recycling trial in Belgium involving 1153 cars for the European automotive and recycling industries (see Figure 6 ). The objective was to measure, in a Figure 5. Dynamic recycling performance calculations for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) as a function of year, illustrating the evolution of recycling rates. ...
Context 2
... of the technology available in the overall recy- cling chain, a fraction that is too expensive and complex to recycle will always remain; this fraction is represented by the fl uff stream in Figure 6 . Metals are usually recovered to a high degree, so little metal was left in the fl uff. ...
Citations
... The purpose of upcycling is to avoid wasting potentially usable resources by repurposing them, in order to cut down on the usage of new materials and energy, pollution of the air and water, and even greenhouse gas emissions [32]. Reuter et al. (2015) pointed out the opportunities and limitations of recycling based on dynamic models. The determinants of adopting a zero-waste consumer lifestyle [33]. ...
... Reuter et al. (2015) pointed out the opportunities and limitations of recycling based on dynamic models. The determinants of adopting a zero-waste consumer lifestyle [33]. The design of packaging sustainability, the influence of appearance and the influence of better Ecol-labeling on consumer evaluation and choice [34]. ...
... A comparison of the Dutch recycling systems for post-consumer plastic packaging waste [35]. Reuter et al. (2015) have mentioned the construction of a dynamic simulation optimization model that can accurately describe the process of recovering materials and energy from product residues and wastewater sludge. It is also important to test from the perspective of the customers in terms of packaging appearance and with more environmentally friendly labels that affect consumer's response [34]. ...
... The software platforms that can describe the large systems of the CE have been developed over numerous years (see Reuter 1997, Reuter and Van Schaik 2012, Fernandes et al. 2020 and have been commercially realized in the simulation software HSC Sim 10 (Outotec 2020). Into the HSC Sim software tools have been incorporated such as: ...
We discuss the limitations to material flows from recycling in the circular economy, using as a case the simulation-based analysis of the CdTe Photovoltaic cells. It is important to use a simulation basis for the analysis, since this permits the quantification of all material losses both in terms of exergy and energy simultaneously i.e. 1 st and 2 nd law of thermodynamics. Harmonizing this with the power supply flowing into the system and minimizing energy usage as well as exergy losses will maximize the resource efficiency.
... The losses from the economy of ore-derived elements linked to application of those de-carbonizing energy technologies can be substantially reduced by improvements in extraction (Pokhrel and Dubey 2013;Spooren et al. 2020), production (Reuter et al. 2015;Reijnders 2016Reijnders , 2018, design and recycling (e.g. Reuter and van Schaik 2012;Babbitt et al. 2021). Such changes could substantially reduce the long-lasting negative impacts of substitutions on natural capital. ...
... van Schaik 2012), ships(Gilbert et al. 2017), cable networks(Unger et al. 2017) aircraft(Vieira et al. 2018), buildings (Di Maria et al. 2018, solar power systems(Lunardi et al. 2018;Muteri et al. 2020), wind turbines (Jensen 2019) concerning wind turbines, synthetic polymers used in manufactured capital(Geyer 2020) and electric vehicles(Zeng et al. 2021). ...
Substitutability of natural capital by human-made capital would seem to be limited. When human-made capital substitutes natural capital, there are currently commonly long-lasting negative impacts of such substitutions on constituents of natural capital. Long-lasting negative impacts on natural capital can be considered at variance with justice between the generations. In view thereof, there is a case to define (environmental) sustainability as keeping natural capital intact for transferral to future generations. A major problem for such conservation regards natural resources generated by geological processes (virtually non-renewable resources), especially regarding geochemically scarce elements. Substitution of virtually non-renewable resources by generating equal amounts of renewables has been proposed as a way to conserve natural capital. However, renewables substituting for fossil carbon compounds are currently associated with negative impacts on constituents of natural capital to be transferred to future generations. The same holds for the substitution of widely used geochemically scarce virtually non-renewable copper by abundant resources generated by geological processes. Though current negative impacts of substitutions on natural capital can be substantially reduced, their elimination seems beyond the scope of what can be achieved in the near future. The less strict “safe operating space for humanity”, which has been used in “absolute sustainability assessments” is, however, not a proper alternative to keeping natural capital intact for transferral to future generations.
... Yet, this depends on the state the metals is present, and for an economically and ecologically sound recycling at EoL, comparing the metal content of the recycling goods to the primary ore is only one aspect due to the above-mentioned factors. One hundred percent recycling of all metals in a complex matrix is not always technically feasible, nor economically suitable, nor is it always ecologically sound (Reuter and van Schaik, 2012). Comparing the so-called urban mine of smartphones with the metal content in primary production, i.e., a simple "metal content in smartphones vs metal content in ore" as facilitated in this study, cannot and is not intended to grasp the complex issue of recycling and the decisive factors for such. ...
... To date, public data for exact metal content of post 2010-smartphone generations are not published, apart from Holgersson et al. (2018). With a general life time of smartphones of 2-3 years, and an additional retention time of 2-3 years, whereby unused smartphones are often lying in consumers' drawers (Bookhagen et al., 2013), devices now reaching the recycling facilities are 5+ years Once smartphones reach recycling facilities, this does not necessarily imply that recycling of all metals is economically feasible nor that it is ecologically reasonable (Reuter and van Schaik, 2012). On the one hand, each metal and its characteristics for recycling must be considered separately (price, grade, economic scarcity, and supply of the metal), but on the other hand these must be investigated in the context of total content in a complex matrix with thermodynamic boundaries, interfering chemistry and current standard technologies, to name a few aspects. ...
... Integrated smelters and refiners seem to be crucial for the treatment of WEEE from a recovery viewpoint, as they recover more than just the usual Au, Ag, Pt, and Pdyet, collection and transport of EoL-products as well establishing new facilities and other technologies also need to be considered. Extracting small amounts from complex matrices is thermodynamically not always feasible and studies point to the fact that 100% recycling is often not ecologically sound (Reuter and van Schaik, 2012). Also, Reuter et al. (2019) suggests that Pb-Zn-Cu as the carrier matrix need to remain part of devices to facilitate recycling in Europe; Pb has been the target of EU-wide bans in materials since the RoHS directive (Restriction of Hazardous Substances, EU Commission, 2011). ...
53 metallic elements from smartphones were investigated with regard to metal prices, metal production, and content in comparison to mined ores. The metal content of the 7.42 billion smartphone devices sold from 2012 to 2017 could theoretically maintain the global supply for 91 days for Ga, 73 days for Ta, 23 days for Pd, 14 days for Au, and 6 days for REE. The pure metal value of a single smartphone device for the investigated metals currently sums to 1.13 US $; it averaged at 1.05 US $ from 2012 to 2017 with the highest value of 1.32 US $ in 2012. The Au content is low (16.83 mg per device), yet constitutes the highest value with a current share of approximately 72% of total value for all measured metals, followed by Pd (10%). Approximately 82% of total metal value can be recycled with current standard recycling methods for Au, Cu, Pd, Pt, which only comprise 6 wt% of the total device. The printed circuit board (pcb) contains 90% of the measured Au, 98% of Cu, 99% of Pd, 86% of In, and 93% of Ta. The Au, Pd, Cu, Pt, Ta, In, Ga contents in a smartphone pcb are significantly higher than the metal content in currently mined ores. Magnets contain 96% of the measured REE and 40% of the measured Ga, with higher concentrations than ores for REE and Ga. For Co and Ge, metal content in smartphones (w/o batteries) is lower than in ores.
free download link:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301420720301392?dgcid=author
... Reck & Graedel (28) discuss the challenges of recycling from a material-centric point of view. In doing so, the effect of a product-centric view of closed loop recycling is neglected (29,30). A product-centric view considers the efficiency of the system in terms of complex natural geological and complex designed mineral/functional material mixtures within the multielement context of techno-economically viable flowsheets (depicted in Figure 2). ...
... Abbreviations: BOF, basic oxygen furnace; CE, circular economy; EAF, electric arc furnace; EoL, end of life; IoT, internet of things; REOs, rare earth oxides; REs, rare earth elements; RLE, roast leach electrowinning; TRIP, transformation-induced plasticity steels. simulation-based understanding is required in a thinking approach as proposed, propagated, and coined by Reuter, Van Schaik, and colleagues (12,30,43). This approach is in contrast to the more limited material-centric approach introduced by Reck & Graedel (28), which basically limits the detail and thus quantifies the economic losses and the environmental risks reflected in Figure 1. ...
... With the complexity of such dynamic, multidimensional systems, analyzing the movement of any metals or compounds and associated environmental, economic, and other impacts in isolation is not realistic (58). For a robust analysis of material metabolism, a bottom-up, product-centric systems approach is required that includes the detail of thermodynamics, mass and heat transfer, flowsheeting, and system simulation (30,36,43,59,60). Such an approach simultaneously takes into consideration all components of a product, as opposed to considering each individual constituent element one at a time, and prevents oversimplification, delivering realistic results (12). ...
Circular economy’s (CE) noble aims maximize resource efficiency (RE) by, for example, extending product life cycles and using wastes as resources. Modern society’s vast and increasing amounts of waste and consumer goods, their complexity, and functional material combinations are challenging the viability of the CE despite various alternative business models promising otherwise. The metallurgical processing of CE-enabling technologies re- quires a sophisticated and agile metallurgical infrastructure. The challenges of reaching a CE are highlighted in terms of, e.g., thermodynamics, transfer processes, technology platforms, digitalization of the processes of the CE stakeholders, and design for recycling (DfR) based on a product (mineral)- centric approach, highlighting the limitations of material-centric considerations. Integrating product-centric considerations into the water, energy, transport, heavy industry, and other smart grid systems will maximize the RE of future smart sustainable cities, providing the fundamental detail for realizing and innovating the United Nation’s Sustainability Development Goals. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-matsci-070218-010057
... Against this background, the efficient recycling of cobalt from end-of-life (EoL) material flows is of high relevance regarding ecological, economic and supply strategic aspects [4,5]. However, the availability of secondary materials is limited by the amount of obsolete products, their collection and separation as well as their further treatment during waste management and recycling [6,7]. An effective tool for increasing transparency of current use structures and understanding the complexities of anthropogenic material cycles is the dynamic material flow modeling. ...
Higher efficiency in raw material recycling is discussed as a key strategy to decrease the environmental impact of resource consumption and to improve materials’ availability in order to mitigate supply risks. However, particularly in the case of technology metals, demand is driven by specific emerging technologies from which recycling will not be possible before the end of their useful lifetimes. Hence, the availability of secondary materials is limited by the amount of obsolete products as well as their collection, separation and treatment during waste management and recycling. In this paper, we present the results of a dynamic material flow model for cobalt as a key raw material for lithium-ion batteries at an European level (EU28). This model aims at quantifying the current state of recycling and future recycling potentials from end-of-life (EoL) product flows. While it is expectable that obsolete large battery packs from (hybrid) electric vehicles will be efficiently collected in future, EoL Li-ion battery flows will remain dominated by smaller electronic equipment (smartphones, laptops etc.) in the coming years and the model results show a significant potential for improvements in collection and material recovery from EoL batteries in Europe. A major challenge will be the collection of smaller batteries and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in general from which a significant share of total European cobalt demand could be recovered in the coming years.
... Another outstanding contribution with respect to integrating LCA with process simulation in the production and recycling of metals is the work that has been developed by Reuter and collaborators (Abadías Llamas et al., 2019;Reuter and Schaik, 2012;Reuter et al., 2015;Schaik and Reuter, 2010;Scheidema et al., 2016) in partnership with the Finnish company Outotec, especially during this last decade. Initially, Schaik and Reuter (2010) developed a computational platform that integrates the properties of the recyclable materials (mainly WEEE) with the response of their liberation and separation, through mathematical models that allow to predict and supervise recycling of WEEE in terms of technology, economy, and environment. ...
... The tool also incorporated thermodynamic and mass conservation principles, and a dynamic structure to predict the performance of recycling in time, providing the first basis for the calculation of dispersion of harmful and valuable elements and their potential environmental impact. In a later study, Reuter and Schaik (2012) extended the application of this approach to other technological systems, including car recycling and the use of metallurgical processing to remove phosphate from wastewaters and recycling the treated water to the resource cycle. ...
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a widely-used methodology for estimating the potential environmental impacts of technological systems in nature. Relative maturity of this method has been achieved thanks to recent standardization efforts, although there are still several challenges, particularly in the minerals industry where LCA still needs to be strengthened and extended in use. An exhaustive review of recent LCA studies on mining and mineral processing operations was conducted to identify how these have dealt with various methodological challenges. A total of twenty-nine studies were found, most of which focusing on developed regions and in three commodities: coal (28%), aggregates (21%), and copper ores (14%). The source of data for background processes has been the Ecoinvent database in 45% of the studies analyzed, whereas the SimaPro software has been the preferred LCA tool in 66% of such studies. Although important advances have been made, significant issues remain. For instance, inconsistencies were found in the definition of the functional unit and system boundaries (temporal and technological). Further, the adoption of allocation criteria and the use of normalization and weighting in impact assessment have not been considered in most cases. While climate change was the main environmental hotspot (more than 90% of the studies addressed this impact category), the impacts associated with water use and waste management have been overlooked in most studies. Furthermore, mining and processing operations have been described as generic, averaged values or as simple functional relationships between system inputs and outputs using parameters without physical significance (“black box models”) in several production chains, making it difficult to identify opportunities for environmental sustainability enhancement within the sector. The work then discusses the opportunity of improvement in LCA in the minerals industry through the incorporation of process simulation from a bottom-up perspective. Evidence from other industries and recent advances in the computational development of such tools for the mineral sector are reviewed, which suggests that there is an opportunity for reducing the epistemic uncertainty in future LCA studies of mining and processing operations through the combination of both approaches.
... The resource conservation effects are correspondingly lower or may even switch to the opposite. One also speaks of thermodynamic limits in this context [97,98]. ...
Urban Mining has been on everyone’s lips for some years, being the quasi-mining of raw materials in urban areas both in cities and communities. Urban Mining requires more and better guidelines and a far-sighted strategy for material flow management. A management concept including a prospective knowledge and decision base for the secondary raw material industry and for local governments is needed. The German Environment Agency wishes to convey a common understanding of Urban Mining and to encourage its steady progress by using this strategic approach.
https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/publikationen/urban-mining-resource-conservation-in-the
... The assessment of recycling potential must be based on established principles, including knowledge of the relative ease of "liberation" of the materials of interest and speciic char- acteristics during physical separation technology and shredding in accordance with the international materials life-cycle initiative established by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) [7]. Conversely, design of products profoundly will afect the potential recyclability of the resources they contain [8]. ...
Today manufacturing stages in electronic device industry of wide-scale production can be restricted due to the high costs resulting from energy consumption, the use of organic solvents, production of hazardous intermediates, and formation of waste products leading to environmental pollution and several biological risks which damage society’s ability to sustain the planet for future generations. As recycled material resource based on iron oxide, the Mn-Zn ferrite is an interesting candidate. The Mn-Zn ferrites used in consumer electronics deteriorate the earth when its final location as waste in landfills occurs. Exploring both structure and conduction properties, uncommon physical properties from shredding processes are available when bulk ferrites are converting in foil ferrites. This chapter provides a comprehensive study on recyclability of the Mn-Zn ferrites to demonstrate its nonlinear behavior as functional green devices.
... Yet, this depends on the state the metals is present, and for an economically and ecologically sound recycling at EoL, comparing the metal content of the recycling goods to the primary ore is only one aspect due to the above-mentioned factors. One hundred percent recycling of all metals in a complex matrix is not always technically feasible, nor economically suitable, nor is it always ecologically sound (Reuter and van Schaik, 2012). Comparing the so-called urban mine of smartphones with the metal content in primary production, i.e., a simple "metal content in smartphones vs metal content in ore" as facilitated in this study, cannot and is not intended to grasp the complex issue of recycling and the decisive factors for such. ...
... To date, public data for exact metal content of post 2010-smartphone generations are not published, apart from Holgersson et al. (2018). With a general life time of smartphones of 2-3 years, and an additional retention time of 2-3 years, whereby unused smartphones are often lying in consumers' drawers (Bookhagen et al., 2013), devices now reaching the recycling facilities are 5+ years Once smartphones reach recycling facilities, this does not necessarily imply that recycling of all metals is economically feasible nor that it is ecologically reasonable (Reuter and van Schaik, 2012). On the one hand, each metal and its characteristics for recycling must be considered separately (price, grade, economic scarcity, and supply of the metal), but on the other hand these must be investigated in the context of total content in a complex matrix with thermodynamic boundaries, interfering chemistry and current standard technologies, to name a few aspects. ...
... Integrated smelters and refiners seem to be crucial for the treatment of WEEE from a recovery viewpoint, as they recover more than just the usual Au, Ag, Pt, and Pdyet, collection and transport of EoL-products as well establishing new facilities and other technologies also need to be considered. Extracting small amounts from complex matrices is thermodynamically not always feasible and studies point to the fact that 100% recycling is often not ecologically sound (Reuter and van Schaik, 2012). Also, Reuter et al. (2019) suggests that Pb-Zn-Cu as the carrier matrix need to remain part of devices to facilitate recycling in Europe; Pb has been the target of EU-wide bans in materials since the RoHS directive (Restriction of Hazardous Substances, EU Commission, 2011). ...
Die Diskussion über Themen wie „Rohstoffe aus Konfliktregionen“ und „nachhaltiger Bergbau“ hat dazu geführt, dass die Hersteller von Geräten der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) verstärkt mögliche sozioökonomische und ökologische Aspekte des Rohstoffabbaus und der Produktionsstufen berücksichtigen
müssen. Auch die mediale Berichterstattung über entsprechende negative Auswirkungen der Produktion entlang der Lieferketten (etwa Amnesty-Bericht zu Kobalt, 2016 [1]; „Blood in the Mobile“, 2010 [6]) befördert dieses Umdenken seit einigen Jahren. Als eine Folge der öffentlichen Aufmerksamkeit fordern Konsumenten und Organisationen ein verantwortungsvolles unternehmerisches Handeln, das Konzepte wie „Corporate Social Responsibility“ und „Producer Responsibility“ umsetzt. In den globalen Wertschöpfungsketten ist jedoch immer schwerer nachvollziehbar, woher die Rohstoffe stammen und wie sich die Konsumgüter im Einzelnen zusammensetzen.
Die Lieferketten mit ihren vielen Händlern und Zwischenhändlern sind komplex organisiert, weshalb die Produzenten nicht immer alle Stationen der Kette kennen. Erschwerend wirkt, dass laufend neue Geräte auf den Markt kommen, deren exakte Zusammensetzung sich nicht eindeutig nachvollziehen lässt. Eine stetige Analyse der
Inhaltsstoffe ist sehr aufwendig, daher können meist nur grobe Schätzwerte verwendet werden. Eine entsprechende Transparenz entlang der Wertschöpfungskette wird jedoch für Produzenten und Konsumenten immer bedeutender, nicht zuletzt auch aufgrund
von EU-Direktiven (WEEE, RoHS und REACH) und internationalen Gesetzen und Richtlinien – zum Beispiel U.S. Dodd Frank Act, Section 1502 (seit 2012), OECDLeitsätze für die Erfüllung der Sorgfaltspflicht (seit 2013) und EU Conflict Minerals Agreement (seit 2016) [8, 11, 21, 23, 31]. Neben der Bestimmung von Inhaltsstoffen gilt es, Rohstoffe möglichst effizient zu nutzen und das Recycling als alternative Rohstoffquelle zu stärken. In diesem Beitrag werden Teilergebnisse einer neuen Studie(1) vorgestellt, in welcher der Rohstoffverbrauch von Smartphones im Mittelpunkt steht.
