RECREATE (REcycling CRitical Elements in Advanced Technologies for the Environment)

RECREATE（回收先进技术中的关键元素以保护环境）

• 批准号: EP/Y53058X/1
• 负责人: Allan Walton
• 金额: $ 819.42万
• 依托单位: University of Birmingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY53058X%2F1
• 关键词: RECREATE; REcycling; CRitical; Elements; Advanced

Technology critical metals (TCMs) are pivotal to achieving Net Zero goals. These metals include for example lithium, cobalt, rare earths and platinum group metals. TCMs are deemed to be "critical" because they are economically important but at risk of short supply. The UK Government's Net Zero Strategy: "Build Back Greener" (2021) highlights the supply of these materials as a key challenge for the UK's energy transition and the need for a circular economy in these materials. They are used in wind-power, EV motors and batteries, LEDs, solar-cells and the hydrogen economy.The Government's (2022) Critical Minerals Strategy, "Resilience for the Future", emphasises the importance of these materials and the global supply-chain pressures. The UK's first critical mineral list identified 18 elements as TCMs (British Geological Survey, 2022).Currently, recycling rates for TCMs are very low, for example < 5% for neodymium , used in rare earth magnets ("Critical Raw Materials Resilience" EU report). There are a number of reasons for this, including a lack of specific incentives or legislation, current product designs often impede separation, in some applications there is a very low concentration of the critical material, often the value chains are fragmented, and current recycling processes, designed for bulk metals, are rather crude resulting in the finely distributed TCMs being lost in a linear economy. The overarching aim of RECREATE is to develop a circular economy for TCMs, keeping the materials or components in the highest value form with the lowest environmental footprint. The project brings together three of the leading research institutes in the UK (Universities of Birmingham, Leicester and Edinburgh) who each specialise in different technologies for the extraction and re-use or recycling of TCMs. The project includes leading industrial and public-sector players and policy makers, all involved in the drive to create a circular economy for critical materials in the UK. The research is informed by a system-wide perspective derived from a deep understanding of the industrial challenges for recycling of these materials, and of the governance structures that drive a circular economy. This project will undertake low TRL transformative research to generate radical improvements in automated sorting, "short loop" recycling, pyrometallurgical and chemical processes with reduced environmental impact, biological processes for dilute effluents, and new materials and product-designs which make re-use or recycling easier. Ultimately the project is developing a toolbox of technologies which can sense, sort, separate and re-use or recycle a broad range of TCMs from a wide range of products. These new technologies will be benchmarked using life cycle and techno economic assessment and the legislative drivers for a circular economy will be explored.

技术关键金属 (TCM) 对于实现净零目标至关重要。这些金属包括例如锂、钴、稀土和铂族金属。中药被认为是“至关重要的”，因为它们在经济上很重要，但存在供应短缺的风险。英国政府的净零战略：“重建更绿色”（2021 年）强调这些材料的供应是英国能源转型的关键挑战，以及这些材料循环经济的必要性。它们用于风力发电、电动汽车电机和电池、LED、太阳能电池和氢经济。政府的（2022）关键矿产战略“未来的弹性”强调了这些材料和全球供应的重要性 -链条压力。英国第一份关键矿物清单将 18 种元素确定为 TCM（英国地质调查局，2022 年）。目前，TCM 的回收率非常低，例如稀土磁体中使用的钕的回收率 < 5%（欧盟“关键原材料弹性”）报告）。造成这种情况的原因有很多，包括缺乏具体的激励措施或立法、当前的产品设计经常阻碍分离、在某些应用中关键材料的浓度非常低、价值链通常是支离破碎的以及当前的回收过程专为大宗金属设计的产品相当粗糙，导致精细分布的中药在线性经济中丢失。 RECREATE 的总体目标是发展中药的循环经济，使材料或组件保持最高价值的形式和最低的环境足迹。该项目汇集了英国三所领先的研究机构（伯明翰大学、莱斯特大学和爱丁堡大学），它们各自专注于中药提取和再利用或回收的不同技术。该项目包括领先的工业和公共部门参与者以及政策制定者，他们都参与了在英国创建关键材料循环经济的努力。该研究基于对这些材料回收的工业挑战以及推动循环经济的治理结构的深刻理解而得出的全系统视角。该项目将进行低 TRL 变革性研究，以在自动分类、“短循环”回收、减少环境影响的火法冶金和化学工艺、稀释废水的生物工艺以及可重复利用或循环使用的新材料和产品设计方面产生根本性改进。回收更容易。最终，该项目正在开发一个技术工具箱，可以从各种产品中感知、分类、分离和再利用或回收各种中药。这些新技术将使用生命周期和技术经济评估进行基准测试，并将探索循环经济的立法驱动因素。