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A generalised Metal Wheel, showing in each sector a complete carrier metal industry to recover efficiently in a product centric way as many as possible the elements, metals and compounds
Source publication
In this paper the link between classical minerals processing, product centric recycling and urban/landfill mining is discussed. The depth that has to be achieved in urban mining and recycling must glean from the wealth of theoretical knowledge and insight that have been developed in the past in minerals processing. Fast innovation in urban mining c...
Context in source publication
Context 1
... 3 illustrates the role of the metallurgical processing infrastructure which takes up the different recyclates from dismantling and sorting. The Metal Wheel 25 ( Figure 5) shows the destination (recovery/losses) of the different elements contained in an EoL product and different recyclates of physical recycling (where the quality of is design and sorting determined). The carrier metallurgical infrastructure (segment in the Metal Wheel) in which the recyclate will end up determines the recovery, losses and fugitive emissions of product recycling. ...
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Citations
... The approach demonstrates that zero waste processing requires more than innovations of technological solutions. 185 The WEEE together with the secondary waste generated within a specific step during metal recycling is considered to be a (secondary) resource or a poly compositional raw material, within both zero waste and product-centric approaches. An integrated flowsheet considering the zero waste scheme tailors recovery of both critical and noncritical metals, and simultaneously purification and inner-circulation of leach solutions. ...
... The maximization of resource efficiency [1,7] is the underlying theme of this paper. The theoretical and technological depth and detail that are required to systemically fully understand resource efficiency in the context of material use and copper metal production both from primary as well as secondary resources is depicted in Figure 3. ...
... The theoretical and technological depth and detail that are required to systemically fully understand resource efficiency in the context of material use and copper metal production both from primary as well as secondary resources is depicted in Figure 3. This is best done through a product-and mineral-centric point of M view rather than a material-centric one [7], which leads to limited recycling rates. It is self-evident that minimizing the environmental footprint requires both a deep techno-economic understanding and also a simulation of the system to truly innovate resource efficiency. ...
... If Design for Resource Efficiency (DfRE) and Design for Recycling (DfR) [7,8] are to be of any use, a thorough simulation basis is required to reveal the potential improvement of resource efficiency. The aspects highlighted in Figure 3 are among those required to design, build, operate, and optimize the various technologies. ...
Copper has some unique properties that enable it to be a cornerstone of a resource-efficient society, as its primary minerals provide numerous technology elements for prod-ucts that enable sustainability. Its relative nobility imparts the capability to capture these technology elements from End-of-Life (EoL) products as the solvent, and through refining, release them in a sophisticated refining infrastruc-ture for use in further high-tech applications, which is a very attractive property. Among base metals, lead and zinc, and nickel to a certain extent, also provide this possibility, as they, like copper, are usually linked to a refining complex that makes it possible to produce high purity metals from metals recovered through refining. Thus these minor ele-ments are not diluted to produce the correct alloy types as is the case for the less noble alloys such as steel and aluminium, minor elements can be extracted from copper and refined to high purity. This paper explores the richness of copper under the following headings: • Copper production and various statistics, • Copper enables a sustainable society, • Product-and mineral-centric systems, • System-integrated copper production, and • A sustainable society and industry. This paper emphasizes the unique metallurgical depth, multi-physics and techno-economic knowledge required to innovate the complete metal system both in terms of unit operations, plant, as well as a system. This naturally brings product design into a rigorous simulation framework and hence seamlessly connects the geological and the urban mine via the required theoretical rigor. This facilitates the quantification of sustainability and resource efficiency with suitable indicators that have a theoretical basis as well as in-dustrial economic and innovation relevance. Finally, design depth and education in process metallurgical engineering are discussed briefly as well as a policy that helps ensure that the metal production infrastructure is optimally main-tained and innovated, which maximizes resource efficiency.
... • Product & mineral centric systems: Resource efficiency in the context of a high-tech BAT infrastructure and its various high-tech and state-of-the-art technologies that enable the "closing" of the material loop at the highest resource efficiency level possible [1,4]. ...
... • System integrated copper production: The leading importance of copper especially also in the Design for Recycling and Resource Efficiency discussion will be highlighted and how it can influence the design of sustainability enabling (consumer) products. Thus Ecodesign will be alluded to -all based on a multi-physics basis [1,4,[7][8][9]. ...
... The maximization of resource efficiency [1][2][3][4] is the underlying theme of this plenary lecture. The theoretical and technological depth and detail that are required to systemically fully understand resource efficiency in the context of material use and copper metal production both from primary as well as secondary resource is depicted by Figure 3. ...
... • Product & mineral centric systems: Resource efficiency in the context of a high-tech BAT infrastructure and its various high-tech and state-of-the-art technologies that enable the "clo- sing" of the material loop at the highest resource efficiency level possible [1,4]. ...
... • System integrated copper production: The leading importance of copper especially also in the Design for Recycling and Resource Efficiency discussion will be highlighted and how it can influence the design of sustainability enabling (consumer) products. Thus Ecodesign will be alluded to -all based on a multi-physics basis [1,4,[7][8][9]. ...
... The maximization of resource efficiency [1][2][3][4] is the underlying theme of this plenary lecture. The theoretical and technological depth and detail that are required to systemically fully understand resource efficiency in the context of material use and copper metal production both from primary as well as secondary resource is depicted by Figure 3. ...
The transition from a Linear to Circular Economy has become a societal challenge to be tackled. However, the increasing complexity of materials and products increases also the sophistication of the circular economy systems required to deal with them. These systems are very resource consuming, therefore, a rigorous evaluation of the impact of every “actor” in circular economy must be done at design and operation stages to ensure the sustainability of the metal-production value chain.
A circular economy system implies, among others, low consumption of energy and material resources and low production of wastes or pollutant emissions. Its sustainability cannot therefore be evaluated just with one indicator. In this paper, we integrate indicators such as recovery rates, environmental impact indicators, as well as the quantities and qualities of the flows, losses and emissions, quantified through exergy. These must all be considered and evaluated simultaneously to perform a rigorous sustainability analysis.
The challenges of achieving a circular processing system and society are illustrated using a unique copper flowsheet that covers the complete processing chain from ore to refined metal including among others minor elements refining, scrap recycling, residue processing, steam utilization, sulphur capture and power generation in 129 unit operations linked by 289 streams and all the compositional and thermochemical detail. Using a simulation-based approach, two scenarios have been studied and compared: (i) a representative primary copper flowsheet and (ii) excluding all waste treatment processes. This unique simulated flowsheet permits a complete evaluation of various scenarios of all copper related processing options (while any additional unit operations can also be added) and also rigorously permits an allocation of impacts of all flows, products, residues etc. as a function of the complete mineral composition.
This approach to evaluating systems shows how to estimate the true losses from a system and will be a key approach to evaluate the true circularity of the circular economy system.
Purpose
Sustainability differentiation has become an important issue for companies throughout the value chain. There is thus a need for detailed and credible analyses, which show the current status and point out where improvements can be done and how. The study describes how a comprehensive product-centric eco-efficiency indicator framework can be used to evaluate, benchmark, and communicate the sustainability of a copper production value chain. The indicator framework, together with the suggested data collection and simulation methods, aims at evaluating the whole system, while still enabling a focus on scopes of different width. The status of the environment, current production technologies, location-specific and process-specific issues all play a role in achieving sustainable development.
Methods
Copper cathode production from copper ore was chosen to exemplify the developed framework. Data sets from a simulation tool were used when available and LCI databases and LCA software were utilized for the remaining steps. The value chain is analyzed and the benchmark for each indicator built according to the new Gaia Refiner indicator framework. This method enables analysis of specific production steps with a higher degree of accuracy.
Results and discussion
The case study shows how some important environmental sustainability issues in copper production can be analyzed and benchmarked within a product group. Benchmark data is collected and used in the analysis for the selected system scope. Data availability is still an issue and the example shows which areas require more information in this context so that products and value chains can be benchmarked in the future on a more consistent basis. The energy mix, chemical use, and land use contribute to potential environmental sustainability risks within the product benchmarking group, while emissions control shows competitive environmental sustainability advantages for the case study.
Conclusions
The methodology is shown to work well in highlighting the sustainability advantages and risks of value chains in copper production with the selected system scope in a visual manner through the Sustainability Indicator “Flower.” The importance of a baseline is clear. The effect of the metal ore grade on the results shows that the scalability of the analysis system is very important. Scaling the system scope up will show the differences in varying value chains and scaling the system scope down will show efficiency differences between more similar value chains, thus visualizing where innovation has the biggest impact.
The recycling link between End-of-Life (EoL) product composition and metallurgical recovery is discussed in this chapter with reference to a materials centric view (aluminium, copper) and product centric by referring to products such as End-of-Life Vehicles, WEEE, E-waste, Lighting, TV/Displays and Catalysts, Batteries etc. For each of the EoL metals and products, some detail of “mineralogy,” i.e. composition, of each product type is provided also referring to Critical raw materials and recyclate quality. Then recycling in terms of collection and physical as well as metallurgical separation is discussed in some detail. In order to capture the whole cycle, process and system simulation is discussed with reference to various existing tools, also showing various simulation results. Finally, physics-based eco-labeling is discussed while also referring to design for recycling (DfR). 10 Design for Recycling rules are also provided as a function of the detail discussed in this chapter.
