Critical Raw Materials - Working towards a second life for Critical Raw Materials in Germany
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The Life 2014 CRM Recovery Project, funded by the EU, aims to enhance the recovery of critical raw materials from waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in Germany, targeting increases of 5% by 2020 and 20% by 2030. Trials have explored various collection methods and innovative recovery techniques, including bio-leaching for tantalum and recovery processes for neodymium, revealing promising results despite the current lack of economically viable recycling processes in Europe. The project underscores the link between WEEE collection and raw material recovery, with potential implications for EU-wide policy and infrastructure improvements.
Critical Raw Materials - Working towards a second life for Critical Raw Materials in Germany
- 1. The LIFE 2014 CRM Recovery project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union. WORKING TOWARDS A SECOND LIFE FOR CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS IN GERMANY Each year millions of tonnes of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) is generated in the EU, but only 30% is reported as properly collected and recycled. The Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Closed Loop Recovery Project aims to increase the recovery of target materials by 5% by 2020 and by 20% by 2030. With this in mind the project has invested in trials exploring novel ways of boosting the collection and recovery of CRMs from household WEEE. Held across the UK, Italy, Germany and the Czech Republic, the collection trials mechanisms included retailer take-back schemes; re-use containers at household waste recycling centres, business collections, university drop-off hubs, school collections and other collection events. PROMOTING RECOVERY IN GERMANY RecyclingBörse (also known as ‘AKR’), based in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany, collects and re-markets used products in its own second-hand shops across the region and also runs a certified WEEE recycling facility. AKR is an independent and not-for-profit organisation, with a mission to promote re- use. It also has the capability to test and evaluate collected WEEE items according to technical and market criteria.
- 2. The LIFE 2014 CRM Recovery project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union. METHODOLOGY This trial was focussed on the recovery of tantalum (Ta), commonly used in the electronics industry for capacitors and high power resistors, and neodymium (Nd), commonly used as an alloy within magnets and within everyday household items, such PCs, laptops and smartphones. Notes: Tantalum Recovery Input materials: capcacitors and printed circuit boards (PCBs) Activity undertaken by TUHH (Hamburg University of Technology) with support by Faunhofer Project Group IWKS Removing Ta capacitors from PCBs by EHF (electrohydraulic fragmentation) Bio-leaching processes used to recover Ta from capacitors Neodymium Recovery Input materials: magnets Activity undertaken by Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS Hydrogen decrepitation process used to separate rare earth permanent magnets from metal plates Rapid quenching (melt- spinning) process used to form rare earth flakes
- 3. The LIFE 2014 CRM Recovery project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union. The bio-leaching trials for Ta are classed as very early-stage, as it is a metal which cannot be leached even by aqua regia, and there is almost no existing literature for Ta bio-leaching. As the bio-leaching process does not require or produce highly toxic or highly corrosive chemicals, the downstream processes, including the metal-removing from liquid phase and waste water treatment, would cause much lower environmental impacts. LINK BETWEEN COLLECTION AND RECOVERY TRIALS The below table demonstrates the overall recovery potential of Ta and Nd based on the collection and recovery trials. The trial activities listed are described within the AKR collection case study.1 Note: The recovery trials were focused on good accessibility and identifiability of Ta and Nd containing components. Therefore, only the number of PCs and laptops are taken into consideration. TRIAL RESULTS 1 http://www.criticalrawmaterialrecovery.eu/three-ways-to-get-great-weee-recycling-results NUMBER OF COLLECTED ITEMS WITH PRINCIPAL TANTALUM AND NEODYMIUM POTENTIAL WEEE Item Collection Trial Activity Re-use Olympics Schools Re-Bag Re-Box Total Recovery Potential PC 32 Zero Zero 32 Ta, Nd Laptop 4 Zero Zero 4 Ta, Nd Mobile phone 36 20 1 57 Ta, Nd Smartphone 30 3 Zero 33 Ta, Nd Tablet 11 3 Zero 14 Ta
- 4. The LIFE 2014 CRM Recovery project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union. • The recovery potential per unit (laptop or PC), depending on the length of the leaching process, is promising. This is especially the case, given that the industry standard for extraction of Ta in the current treatment of PCBs in a smelter route is zero. Length of leaching process Leaching ratio Tantalum recovery potential 70 days 13.74% 0.0011g 15 days 5.31% 0.0004g Table 2: Ta recovery potential per unit (PC or laptop). • The recovery potential of Nd from magnets is also positive. For a single Hard Disk Drive (HDD) with a 10.1g magnet of the Voice Coil Motor (VCM), 0.65g of Nd is recoverable. The recovered amount of Nd during the trial also determined the technical recovery potential of magnet flakes that are directly usable in a magnet production. Since there is no practical process existing in Europe, this figure is an important footnote that could stimulate further technological advances towards the removal of VCM magnets from HDDs. LESSONS LEARNT Commercial • With regard to the recovery of Nd from HDDs, there is currently no recycling process implemented in Europe for magnet recycling/recovery. Thus, the commercial viability can be evaluated only roughly by comparison with the estimated costs of the production and pricing of magnets imported from China. Currently, the assumed price of magnets from China is about 60€/kg. Based on indicative assessments of the recovery trials for this project, the cost of producing 1kg magnet material from used magnets from HDDs is about 15€, with current price levels of 95€/kg for virgin Nd oxide.
- 5. The LIFE 2014 CRM Recovery project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union. • The current lack of economically viable recycling processes highlights the importance of keeping collection costs low to improve the overall economic viability of the process. • The analysis of the trials showed that even though the operational costs of bio- leaching are considerably higher than the cost of traditional recovery processes and conventional mining, more metal can be extracted using bio-leaching, especially from low-grade material (e.g. copper). Conventional mining can extract 60% to 65% from an ore/material, whereas 90% to 95% can be extracted using bio- leaching. The same results are expected for Ta and other CRMs. Recovery Process • The recovered material can be directly used for new magnet processing, without further purification of melting processes (as it is already a ready-to-use form). • Manual dismantling took time and effort. It would be useful (and possible) to develop an automatic dismantling system for HDDs. • The recovered amount of Nd during the trial determined the technical recovery potential of magnet flakes that are directly usable in magnet production. This is an important development, as there aren’t any practical processes existing in Europe. • Further (future) work would be useful in a number of areas: - To investigate the potential of setting-up economically feasible magnet production in Europe by incorporating significant flows of secondary magnets from sources such as HDDs and electric motors. - To develop an economically viable dismantling process to remove the VCM magnets from HDDs. BUSINESS BENEFITS • This trial supports a 2017 recommendation by the German Environment Agency
- 6. The LIFE 2014 CRM Recovery project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union. (UBA). Namely, that future treatment regulations should include a Ta requirement that magnets from HDDs should be separated and added to a recovery process. • The Ta recovery by bio-leaching shows a high potential for new innovative research, especially considering that there appears to be no existing literature on this specific problem. • Bio-leaching (compared to conventional acid leaching) has a low environmental impact and avoids the use of hazardous substances. This therefore suggests opportunities to implement this technology in new markets, or for use by organisations that have restrictions in handling hazardous liquids. • This CRM Recovery Project trial has tested and demonstrated a number of repeatable, lab-scale (but scalable) processes for the recovery of CRMs from WEEE items. • The trial has also successfully demonstrated the important link between WEEE collection and CRM recovery, which can serve to increase the latter. • The learnings and outcomes of this trial have provided valuable input into the EU- wide policy and infrastructure recommendations that will be published shortly, and which could be applied in a commercial setting to increase the recovery of CRM-rich components from data-bearing devices.