Metrology for the Recycling of Technology Critical Elements to Support Europe’s Circular Economy

Technology critical elements (TCEs) are vastly used throughout societal consumer products; including phones, computers, and renewable energy products, such as solar panels and wind turbines. These elements are deemed critical due to their economic importance and supply risk. However, dwindling supplies of TCEs threaten to disrupt such technology production worldwide, which is especially concerning given a recent drive for more renewable energy sources as part of the European Green Deal. Thus, there is a drive for the European Union (EU) to strive for a circular economy approach that reduces dependence on imports of such raw materials. To provide a more secure supply of TCEs, the EU promotes more efficient recycling through the Waste
Framework Directive (2018/851/EU).

Recent historical events have shown that now, more than ever, it is imperative that the European Union (EU) strives towards a more circular economy and avoid dependence on imports from other countries. Technology critical elements (TCEs), which are irreplaceable in the majority of technology that forms the basis of modern society as well as for renewable energy technology, are one such group of raw materials that suffer from potential supply risks due doglobal stock shortages and selected countries who produce them. In 2017, the European Commission issued new targets for the recycling of TCE containing waste (2018/851/EU), such as electronic waste, however these targets are not currently being met due to the low availability of methods and materials used to accurately measure these elements in electronic waste products.Thus, the Metro CycleEU project has been introduced to provide analytical solutions for the measurement of TCEs in electronic waste, such as digestion of the material and development of reference materials, in order to aid the recycling industry.



Copyright: © Lehrstuhl für Abfallverwertungstechnik und Abfallwirtschaft der Montanuniversität Leoben
Quelle: Recy & Depotech 2022 (November 2022)
Seiten: 2
Preis inkl. MwSt.: € 1,00
Autor: Shaun T. Lancaster

Artikel weiterleiten In den Warenkorb legen Artikel kommentieren


Diese Fachartikel könnten Sie auch interessieren:

Von der linearen Abfallwirtschaft zur Circular Economy in Brasilien
© Lehrstuhl für Abfallverwertungstechnik und Abfallwirtschaft der Montanuniversität Leoben (11/2022)
Brasilien verfügt seit 2010 über eine fortschrittliche Abfallpolitik, die im Frühjahr 2022 im Umsetzungsplan PLANARES um ambitionierte Recyclingquoten ergänzt wurde. Der Umsetzungsplan sieht u.a. eine Recyclingquote für Wertstoffe von 20 % bis 2040 vor, was einer Vervierfachung des aktuellen Wertes entspricht. Dies stellt die für die Abfallwirtschaft zuständigen Kommunen vor große Herausforderungen. Regionale und nachhaltige Abfallwirtschaftskonzepte, die lokale Rahmenbedingungen berücksichtigen und auf die Herstellung von Sekundärrohstoffen abzielen, sind Teil der Lösung und tragen zur Erreichung der Recyclingziele bei. Diese Konzepte bestehen aus verschiedenen Technologiekombinationen, die fraktionsspezifisch und nach definierten Kriterien geplant werden müssen. Für eine effektive und effiziente Planung sollten Maßnahmen in den Bereichen Technisierung, Modularität, Standorte und Dynamiken berücksichtigt werden.

Comparative analysis of the industrial dust efficiency use as a filler in building composite materials
© Lehrstuhl für Abfallverwertungstechnik und Abfallwirtschaft der Montanuniversität Leoben (11/2022)
The article presents a comparison of the characteristics of several types of industrial dusts in terms of their use as a filler in polymer compositions. To confirm the possibility of using the studied waste, their material composition and properties were studied. The paper presents studies on the processing of industrial dusts into polymer composite materials for construction purposes. The characteristics of the developed composite materials have been studied. The influence on the strength characteristics of composite materials of the shape of dust particles, their size distribution, the value of the specific surface area, and the maximum packing density of particles is determined. The prospects for the use of dispersed mineral waste for the production of building composite materials are considered.

Integration of regional socio-economic LCA and environmental LCA for the assessment of industrial bioeconomy networks
© Lehrstuhl für Abfallverwertungstechnik und Abfallwirtschaft der Montanuniversität Leoben (11/2022)
The current geopolitical situation in Europe has led to revisit the evaluation of energetic independence of countries but also of regions. In this sense, previous works have shown the advantages of implementing regional integration schemes for bio-based production systems to promote the internal exchange of heat and by-products (Hildebrandt et al., 2020) (Bijon et al., 2022; Fytili & Zabaniotou, 2022).

The AHOY-Project: Waste Wood Sorting with X-ray Technology
© Lehrstuhl für Abfallverwertungstechnik und Abfallwirtschaft der Montanuniversität Leoben (11/2022)
Waste wood is a valuable resource, but is hardly recycled despite increasing demand, predicted supply gaps (Mantau et al. 2010), and galloping wood prices since 2020 (Trading Economics 2022). In Germany alone around 10 million tons of waste wood accumulated in 2016. Only a minor part (1.7 million tons) is substantially reused in the production of chipboards. The majority (7.7 million tons) is fed into energy recovery, i.e., burned in one of the 80 German waste wood power plants (BMUV 2021), and is thus lost, while the supply of fresh wood is limited by slow growth cycles and finite acreage. In view of current environmental regulations, climate change and massive tree mortality, waste wood should be kept permanently in the circular economy as a high-quality raw material in the future.

Refine the circular economy by rethinking it - a holistic approach for the advanced circular economy
© Lehrstuhl für Abfallverwertungstechnik und Abfallwirtschaft der Montanuniversität Leoben (11/2022)
The Circular Economy is a recent economic approach aiming to transform the linear economy into a sustainable system including the economic, ecological, and social dimensions. The transformation faces various barriers and obstacles, each in a different field inside the value system. Three different (sub-system) approaches were developed independently to address those hurdles and provide solutions to mitigate them. The paper will briefly describe those approaches, including their strengths and weaknesses. Out of each of the three individual sub-systems, these sub-systems are combined in a holistic approach and presented as the Advanced Circular Economy. The system is developed on a meta-level. Nevertheless, a very crucial example, namely traction batteries for electric vehicles, will be given to show the relevance of the system within the current economic surroundings and explain the overall system of the Advanced Circular Economy.

Name:

Passwort:

 Angemeldet bleiben

Passwort vergessen?

Der ASK Wissenspool
 
Mit Klick auf die jüngste Ausgabe des Content -Partners zeigt sich das gesamte Angebot des Partners
 

Selbst Partner werden?
 
Dann interessiert Sie sicher das ASK win - win Prinzip:
 
ASK stellt kostenlos die Abwicklungs- und Marketingplattform - die Partner stellen den Content.
 
Umsätze werden im Verhältnis 30 zu 70 (70% für den Content Partner) geteilt.
 

Neu in ASK? Dann gleich registrieren und Vorteile nutzen...