Metal Sustainability E-Book

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1127

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

The sustainable use of natural resources is an important global challenge, and improved metal sustainability is a crucial goal for the 21st century in order to conserve the supply of critical metals and mitigate the environmental and health issues resulting from unrecovered metals.

Metal Sustainability: Global Challenges, Consequences and Prospects discusses important topics and challenges associated with sustainability in metal life cycles, from mining ore to beneficiation processes, to product manufacture, to recovery from end-of-life materials, to environmental and health concerns resulting from generated waste. The broad perspective presented highlights the global interdependence of the many stages of metal life cycles. Economic issues are emphasized and relevant environmental, health, political, industrial and societal issues are discussed. The importance of applying green chemistry principles to metal sustainability is emphasized.

Topics covered include:
• Recycling and sustainable utilization of precious and specialty metals
• Formal and informal recycling from electronic and other  high-tech wastes
• Global management of electronic wastes
• Metal reuse and recycling in developing countries
• Effects of toxic and other metal releases on the environment and human health
• Effect on bacteria of toxic metal release
• Selective recovery of platinum group metals and rare earth metals
• Metal sustainability from a manufacturing perspective
• Economic perspectives on sustainability, mineral development, and metal life cycles
• Closing the Loop – Minerals Industry Issues

The aim of this book is to improve awareness of the increasingly important role metals play in our high-tech society, the need to conserve our metal supply throughout the metal life cycle, the importance of improved metal recycling, and the effects that unhindered metal loss can have on the environment and on human health.

Leseprobe

Metal Sustainability

Global Challenges, Consequences, and Prospects

Edited by

REED M. IZATT

IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc., American Fork, UT, USA and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Brigham Young University Provo, UT, USA

This edition first published 2016© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

Names: Izatt, Reed M., 1926– editor.Title: Metal sustainability : global challenges, consequences, and prospects / edited by Reed M. Izatt, IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc., American Fork, Utah, and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.Description: Chichester, West Sussex : John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2016014406 (print) | LCCN 2016016291 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119009108 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119009146 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119009122 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Metals. | Metals–Fatigue. | Metallurgy. | Nonferrous metals–Metallurgy. | Metals–Recycling. | Fracture mechanicsClassification: LCC QD171 .M4164 2016 (print) | LCC QD171 (ebook) | DDC 669/.042–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016014406

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Front Cover image: Gettyimages/JacobH

List of Contributors

Adebola A. Adeyi, Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Gilbert U. Adie, Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Paula Berton, Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, U.S.A; Department of Chemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Sean C. Booth, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Ronald L. Bruening, IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc., American Fork, UT, U.S.A.

Peter G.C. Campbell, Institut national de la Recherche scientifique, INRS‐ETE, Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Québec, Canada

Xinwen Chi, School of Environmental Science & Engineering, South University of Science and Technology of China, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

Nicholas Dinham, Platinum Group Metals Consultant, Johannesburg, South Africa

Roderick G. Eggert, Division of Economics and Business, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, U.S.A.

Xinbin Feng, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, China

Mathew L. Frankel, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Yoshiaki Furusho, GL Sciences Inc., Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

Jürgen Gailer, University of Calgary, Department of Chemistry, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Xueyi Guo, Research Institute for Resource Recycling, School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PRC

Christian Hagelüken, Umicore AG & Co, KG, Hanau, Germany

Taiwo B. Hammed, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Nawshad Haque, CSIRO Mineral Resources, Clayton, Australia

Hiroshi Hasegawa, Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kakuma, Kanazawa, Japan

Satoshi Ichiishi, Chemical & Refining Company, Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K, Nagatoro, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan

Neil E. Izatt, IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc., American Fork, UT, U.S.A.

Reed M. Izatt, IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc., American Fork, UT, U.S.A.; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, U.S.A.

Steven R. Izatt, IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc., American Fork, UT, U.S.A.

Xiaoyun Jiang, Changsha Hasky Environmental Science and Technology Limited Co., Xinsheng Road, Changsha, Hunan, China

Steven P. Kelley, Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, U.S.A; Department of Chemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Krzysztof E. Krakowiak, IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc., American Fork, UT, U.S.A.

Jinhui Li, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Ping Li, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, China

Kenichi Nakajima, Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Ibaraki, Japan

Kazuyo Matsubae, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan

Koichi Matsutani, Shonan Plant, Chemical & Refining Products Division, Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K., Nagatoro, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan

James S. McKenzie, Ucore Rare Metals, Inc., Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

Takahiro Miki, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan

Michael B. Mooiman, Franklin Pierce University, Manchester, NH, U.S.A.

Tracy Morris, ASARCO LLC, Amarillo, TX, U.S.A.

Tetsuya Nagasaka, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan

Luis G. Navarro, IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc., American Fork, UT, U.S.A.

Innocent C. Nnorom, Department of Industrial Chemistry, Abia State University, Uturu, Abia State, Nigeria

Mary B. Ogundiran, Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Akihiko Okuda, Shonan Plant, Chemical & Refining Products Division, Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K., Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan

Oladele Osibanjo, Basel Convention Coordinating Centre For Training & Technology Transfer for the African Region, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria & Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Krishna Parameswaran, tfgMM Strategic Consulting, Scottsdale, AZ, U.S.A.

Guangle Qiu, State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, China

Ismail M.M. Rahman, Institute of Environmental Radioactivity, Fukushima University, Fukushima City, Fukushima, Japan

William J. Rankin, CSIRO Mineral Resources, Clayton, Australia

Weldon Read, ASARCO LLC, Amarillo, TX, U.S.A.

Robin D. Rogers, Department of Chemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Department of Chemistry, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, U.S.A.

Kathryn C. Sole, Consulting Hydrometallurgist, Johannesburg, South Africa

Jianfei Song, Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China

Qingbin Song, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

Mynepalli K. C. Sridhar, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Faculty of Public Health, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

Martin Streicher‐Porte, FHNW, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, Institute for Biomass and Resource Efficiency, Windisch, Switzerland

Shengpei Su, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, Hunan, China

Osamu Takeda, Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Miyagi, Japan

Raymond J. Turner, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Tetsuya Ueda, Shonan Plant,Tanaka Kikinzoku K.K., Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan

Ian D. Williams, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, U.K.

Kaihua Xu, GEM CO., Ltd, Marina Bay Center, South of Xinghua Rd., Bao’an Center Area, Shenzhen, PRC

Jianxin Yang, Research Center for Eco‐Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

Yongzhu Zhang, School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, PRC

Preface

Achievement of improved metal sustainability is a critical global goal for the 21st century. There is room for significant improvement in global metal sustainability throughout metal life cycles from mining ore to beneficiation processes to product manufacture to recovery from end‐of‐life materials. Serious global environmental and health issues resulting from unrecovered metals entering the commons exist for each of these life‐cycle steps, especially in non‐Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations. Greater use of green chemistry principles is needed in these life‐cycle steps to maximize metal conservation while minimizing metal loss to the commons. Maintenance of adequate global metal supplies requires greater use of formal recycling and increased urban mining. A particular challenge to metal sustainability is informal recycling, which is widespread, particularly in non‐OECD nations, resulting in significant metal losses and severe environmental and health problems in populations least able to confront them. Informal recycling is considered by some to be the most pressing global environmental issue associated with e‐waste. Despite these concerns, informal recycling is an important economic activity for large segments of the population in many non‐OECD nations, presenting a ‘catch‐22’ situation for government policy makers.

A few decades ago, about ten metals were in common use globally, mainly for infrastructure, transportation, and construction purposes. In 2016, as many as 40 metals are in use, most being essential, usually in small quantities per item, for optimal performance of high‐technology products, which have become an essential part of our society. Many of these metals are used once, then discarded, with recycling rates <1%. To the extent that metals are not recycled, the need to mine virgin ore to meet demand is increased, with attendant environmental damage and greater use of energy and water resources.

A unique feature of this book is its coverage in a single volume of many aspects of metal life cycles together with discussion of relevant environmental, health, political, economic, industrial, and societal issues. These issues are presented and discussed by individuals knowledgeable in various aspects of metal life cycles as given above. Special emphasis is given to precious, specialty, toxic, and radioactive metals. Economic considerations are presented, since these are the driving forces on the pathway to metal sustainability. Global societal effects related to metal sustainability are presented and discussed including those involving health, environmental, political, industrial, and other stakeholder issues. The increasing presence of toxic metals, such as Hg, Pb, As, and Cd, in the environment poses challenging questions to all stakeholders. Mercury, for example, can be released in China, but be a global health threat because it may remain airborne long enough to circle the globe. Arsenic is concentrated in rice in China, where it becomes a health issue, since rice is a food staple in that nation and may be exported. A broad perspective is important because the tendency is to look at metal sustainability from a specific stakeholder’s standpoint at a particular location and not consider the global interdependence of the many aspects of metal life cycles.

There is a global distribution of chapter authors representing non‐OECD as well as OECD nations in order to obtain first‐hand information about metal sustainability issues worldwide. Major goals are to provide information that will make readers aware of the increasingly important role technology metals play in our high‐tech society, the need to conserve our metal supply throughout the metal life cycle through application of green chemistry principles, the importance of improved metal recycling, and the dire effects that unhindered metal loss can have on the environment and on human health.

The material presented will be useful to scientists, engineers, and other researchers in the field; policy makers as they consider alternatives; companies as they make key decisions that impact how metals are used and how products and processes can be optimized to enhance recycling; press/media as they communicate with the public; and the public who ultimately, as they become aware of the issues, will demand of other stakeholders conservation of natural resources, including technology metals, that make their quality of life secure. The book will be successful if it creates a greater awareness among stakeholders of the adverse consequences of continuing on the present course and makes these stakeholders aware of alternatives that can lead to greater achievement of global high‐technology metal sustainability.

Reed M. IzattProvoApril 2016

Acknowledgments

I appreciate and thank the authors of each chapter who have worked diligently to deliver high‐ quality content for this volume. I have enjoyed the constant guidance of a terrific set of Wiley editors who have provided help whenever needed by me and by the authors. My computer‐literate daughter, Anne Marie Izatt, has been of immeasurable assistance throughout this editing experience. Knowing she was there when needed, which was often, brought me great comfort. Finally, I thank my wife, Janet, for her patience, understanding and support throughout the preparation of this book. Janet, who has a university degree in English, has been a valuable sounding‐board, has made many helpful suggestions, and has come to know the names of and become familiar with many technology metals, like dysprosium. She is amazed that few people have heard of this technology metal, but that is what the book is about.

1Recycling and Sustainable Utilization of Precious and Specialty Metals

Reed M. Izatt1and Christian Hagelüken2

1 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, 84602, U.S.A.

2 Umicore AG & Co., KG, Hanau‐Wolfgang, Germany

1.1 Introduction

The need for increased and more effective recycling of our technology metal supply is urgent. This supply consists of both precious and specialty metals. Both sets of metals are essential to functioning of our high‐technology products, but for economic reasons there is much more interest in recycling the former than the latter. Average recycling rates for precious metals are above 50% [1], but huge differences exist depending on their application. For example, from chemical and oil refining process catalysts used in “closed cycles” over 90% of the precious metals contained therein are recovered even in case of long lifecycles of over 10 years. Closed cycles prevail in industrial processes where precious metals are used to enable the manufacture of products or intermediates. Hence, a closed cycle is typically taking place in a business‐to‐business (B2B) environment with no private consumers involved in its different steps. In such systems, the user of the metal‐containing product (e.g., the chemical plant) returns the spent product directly to a refiner who recovers the metals and returns them to the owner for a new product cycle. In most cases, the metals remain the property of the user for the entire cycle and the metal‐refiner conducts recycling as a service (so called toll refining). Third parties are hardly involved, and, if so, only as other‐service contractors (e.g., burning off carbon‐contaminated oil refining catalysts), but not taking property of the material. With such a setup, the whole cycle flow becomes very transparent and professionally managed by industrial stakeholders, resulting in very small metal losses.

Recycling rates are usually much lower in “open cycles” taking place in a business‐to‐consumers (B2C) environment. Typical examples are electronics and car catalysts. The owner of the spent product (e.g., an ELV or a PC), who might be number x in line after a number of preceding (second‐hand) product owners, does not return the product directly to a metals refiner. Instead, the product goes through a usually, long, complex and sometimes opaque chain of collectors and scrap dealers until it reaches the real metal recyclers, in a consolidated way. In this process, ownership of the metal changes each time a transaction occurs, transparency is low, business transactions can be rather strange and special, and resulting metal losses are usually much higher than in B2B closed‐loop systems. Important impact factors that determine the overall recycling rates of open cycles are intrinsic value, the ease or difficulty of accessing the relevant component or product, and legal or other boundary conditions that can help channel consumer products into appropriate recycling processes along the chain. An example on the high side (>95% recycling rate) is jewelry, where the high metal and emotional value of a gold ring, for example, prevents losses. Recovery rates of platinum group metals (PGM) can be 60 − 70%, in the case of automotive catalysts [2], which are quite successfully recycled (easy to disassemble from a car and high intrinsic value). However, metallurgical recovery rates for PGM are > 95% with the gap being due to exports of end‐of‐life (EoL) cars and long and opaque chains before a spent catalyst reaches a precious metals refinery. On the low side with average precious metal recycling rates below 15% are EoL electronic wastes (e‐wastes). This low recycling rate is caused by poor collection, often inappropriate pre‐treatment, and a high share of precious metal‐containing fractions that enter sub‐standard or informal recycling processes. Such processes operate with untrained personnel using crude equipment and result in severe adverse environmental and health effects [3]. Recovery rates of precious metals from e‐wastes, if treated in state‐of‐the‐art integrated smelter operations, would be > 95%, but the waste materials need to get there. The concept of open versus closed cycles has been described [4]. Summarizing, in open cycles metal losses are significantly higher than those that would be found in metallurgical refining. The net effect is that highly efficient state‐of‐the‐art technology [2] is used for only a small portion of waste products containing these precious and specialty metals. Products that are recycled properly are mainly those of high economic value and/or those from closed industrial loops. Recycling of specialty metals from such products is even more challenging. Metals in these products face the same limits of open cycles, but in addition with a lower economic value their recovery is far less attractive, and in some cases there are also thermodynamic limits. As has been elaborated [2,3,5] and is discussed later in this chapter, advanced metallurgical processes can co‐recover a number of specialty metals if they fit chemically into a specific extraction system, e.g., in addition to the precious metals, Se, Te, Sb, Sn and In, partially, can be extracted pyrometallurgically by the collector metals Cu, Pb or Ni. However, others like Ta, Ga, and rare earth metals do not extract well. This situation leads overall to very low recycling rates for many specialty metals. Although of high strategic importance in our society, many specialty metals are not recycled but are usually discarded to the commons after one, often brief, use.

The subject of recycling is central to the thrust of this book. Most chapters have sections dealing with the status of metal recycling. For example, Ueda et al. [6] describe Pt metal recovery at Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. in Japan. From these accounts, one can obtain an appreciation for the successes, inadequacies, and challenges associated with metal recycling throughout the world. The amount of e‐waste generated globally is enormous, estimated by several chapter authors as being 30 − 50 million tons yearly [7,8] with an estimated growth rate of 4 − 5% [8]. These numbers are startling and provide evidence for why it is incumbent on involved stakeholders to find technical and practical ways to improve global recycling processes [9,10]. However, it needs to be understood that only a fraction of this global waste is relevant for the recycling of precious and specialty metals. This fraction comprises of EoL information and communications technology (ICT) devices encompassing cellular phones, computer and network hardware, etc., and of audio‐video devices (radio, television, etc.). White goods as well as electric household devices such as vacuum cleaners, toasters or electric tools are of importance for the recycling of steel, base metals (e.g., Cu) and plastics but contain very small amounts of precious and specialty metals. In addition, especially for electronic devices, miniaturization and new types of products lead to a reduction of weight although sales numbers are still on the rise. Examples are TVs (CRT‐TV > 30 kg; LCD‐TV ≈ 16 kg, LED‐TV ≈ 14 kg) and computers (desktop PC ≈ 12 kg, notebook 2 − 3 kg, tablet 0.3 kg) [11]. Continuing on the current course has dire consequences for Earth’s metal supply as well as negative consequences for the global environment and health of Earth's inhabitants, human and otherwise [3].

Recycling of metals from modern high‐technology products, including waste electronics, EoL vehicles, and automotive catalytic devices is a complex procedure. Current recycling procedures from collection of EoL products to disassembling them into component parts to recovering target metals have been presented and discussed [9]. Important global benefits are derived from effective recycling, including the possibility of ‘mining’ target metals at a fraction of the economic and environmental costs associated with mining virgin ore [2,3]. However, there is a fundamental difference between a geological and an urban mine deposit. In general, a geological deposit is characterized by the composition and grade of its ore and by the total volume of the ore body leading to an estimation of the tonnage of target metals to be extracted. In a mining deposit, the ore body is concentrated in a specific location. It might be difficult to access and to mine the ore, but it exists in a defined space and it stays there. Hence, if total ore volume and metal prices justify, the necessary infrastructure will be built up and mining will start. The high investments and capital costs of operating a mine, consequently, force many operators to keep the mine running even at depressed prices as long as at least the variable operating costs can be covered.

In these respects, the challenge for secondary deposits, such as are found in an urban mine, is much greater. Although the “ore grade” might be significantly higher than in natural deposits, the urban mining activities are scattered over a vast area. In the case of consumer products, this area comprises millions of individual households. To make a real urban mine, it is first necessary to bring or pull the millions of devices — think about mobile phones or computers — towards the recycling facilities. Once there is a big pile of EoL devices at the gate of a recycling facility, it forms a real deposit, but not before. High metal prices and metal content in an EoL device (i.e., a high intrinsic value) can push these devices towards recycling, as it is the case with jewellery scrap or catalysts. However, if the intrinsic value is not sufficiently attractive, then pull