New technologies have been developed that can potentially transform the future of metals processing and recycling. How can these new technologies improve Europe’s ability to get the critical raw materials that it needs?
How we process metals after mining them has not changed substantially for thousands of years. Since the Roman days of massive mines at Las Médulas in Spain, ore extracted from the earth has been heated to an incredibly high temperature. The heat melts the pure metal, which is then collected and separated. By and large, this process, called smelting, provided the raw material for everything from ancient coins and swords to the insides of your car and computer today.
Alternatives to smelting have been researched for years, but for the first time, one is becoming industrially competitive. At the same time, a similar technology is opening up new ways to recycle the metals already in the products we use.
These new technologies are poised to transform metals processing and recycling. They could help improve Europe’s ability to get the critical raw materials that it needs.
So what does the future of metals processing and recycling look like? The European Science-Media Hub asked Dr. Eva Lain and her team from Lain Tech in Madrid (Spain), and Prof. Bernd Friedrich of the Institute for Metallurgical Process Engineering and Metal Recycling at Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) Aachen in Germany.
Core similarity
According to Dr. Eva Lain, CEO of Lain Tech, mining and recycling share a core similarity: both involve starting with a conglomerate “thing” – either the ore, which contains the desired metal as well as other minerals and substances, or, in case of recycling, an existing product like a smartphone. Here the metals are integrated with the plastic, glass, and other components.
Whether mining or recycling, there are two main ways to go from source to product:
Dr. Eva Lain, CEO of Lain Tech: “You have the ‘hydro’ way – hydrometallurgy, or dissolving the metals from minerals into a solution – and the “pyro” way – pyrometallurgy, otherwise called smelting, which uses intense heat to melt and separate the various elements inside the mineral.” – Read the full interview with Eva Lain
It’s precisely the ‘hydro’ way that is now yielding valuable results – as Lain says, her company has developed “the first hydrometallurgical method for primary sulfide minerals that is proven to be economically competitive and that has been implemented at an industrial scale.”
Using electricity
While this all might sound technical, ”80% of the world’s reserves of metals such as copper and zinc” are found in such minerals, meaning that this method is actually very broadly applicable. The chemical structure of these minerals makes them difficult to process – Lain’s key was to use electricity in addition to chemicals to drive the reaction, leveraging the electrical properties of the metals themselves, “the energy used [by the process] is close to the theoretical minimum necessary to extract the metal”, Lain says.
The advantages are numerous. To start with, current smelting methods result in European ores being exported for processing.
According to Lain, they are “transported to the port and then shipped to smelters, usually located in Asia. We then need to import the metal back again to Europe.”
All this transport not only results in European dependence on a globe-spanning supply chain – it also creates lots of carbon emissions on top of the already dirty smelting process.
The new process is much cleaner: “In terms of carbon footprint, we reduce it by about 94% compared to transport and smelting abroad.”
Recycling: a very dynamic system
While Lain’s company is working on developing new ways to extract minerals for the first time, other researchers are using a similar technology to recycle the metals already present in the technology we would otherwise throw away.
However, the recycling process needs to be “a very dynamic system because every generation of smartphone has a different design and contains different metals,” says Prof. Bernd friedrich of RWTH Aachen. Just like with ore, you can either use “a smelter furnace to melt down and separate the different metals,” or, “do the whole process chemically… [using] an acid [to] dissolve everything into a multi metal solution [and then] separate out the useful elements.” – Read the full interview with Bernd friedrich
Green transition
Both the novel mining and recycling technologies fall into a more holistic vision of materials usage in the EU. Access to raw materials is key to a green transition. Processing minerals next to the mines would not only cut down pollution, it would “bring prosperity to the area in the form of economic activity and quality jobs,” replacing outsourced work.
Because the new electricity-based process is much more tolerant of different kinds of ores, it might even let some closed mines reopen. While Lain understands people might be hesitant, she says that mining is already a much-reformed industry: “mines are subject to very strict authorisation procedures and continuous checks and the actual activity is highly digitalised,” especially in the EU.
“At the end of the day, who doesn’t want to use a phone, a computer or a car? The best we can do is operate the industry in a safe and conscious way with the best practices,” says Lain.
This connects well with Prof. Friedrich’s work – those same phones and computers, even if manufactured using metals from a clean new mining process, can still end up as harmful e-waste. The value of those metals is lost if they sit unused, and e-waste that is exported is often burned outdoors to try to recover the metals. Friedrich emphasises that “It should be easy to bring the old products to be recycled. Now you have to drive 5 kilometres to the nearest recycling point. Nobody will do that, since phones are small.”
Awareness and understanding
Friedrich notes from experience that awareness and public understanding pose a unique challenge in recycling. “There is not enough knowledge about recycling in general to begin with. Some people say, ‘Why shall I separate glass at home if the people outside mix it back?’ There are stories here of reluctance like that.”
But when his research group promoted its work on Aachen’s campus, he recalls a positive response: “Within one week, I had more than 200 smartphones here, only from a few messages around the campus.”
When asked about the role recycling can play in Europe’s material supply, Friedrich is realistic. “We will never cover the complete demand with recycling,” he points out. “It’s impossible, especially not in a rising economy, because the recycling may take place several years after the product has gone through its complete lifecycle.”
This is where the two technologies connect with each other: an increase in domestic metals processing covering the rising need, and recycling ensuring longevity.
Looking forward
Both Lain and Friedrich talked about their goals looking forward. “We also want to develop other strategic research and development lines that we are quite passionate about and diversify our activity,” Lain said. She listed electricity needs as a key factor in building up capacity for her technology – it relies on access to lots of power, and optimally, that power should be from clean sources.
For Friedrich, his group’s goal is to minimise the amount of material that goes un-recycled in the end. “We can’t eliminate this waste entirely. Therefore, we call our process ‘near zero waste metallurgy.’ That means we will certainly emit some gases, we will emit, some solids, some wastewater; but that must be under control and minimised.”
He also points out that recycling is not free, and requires incentives from the government: “If we have a regulation on battery recycling, say, to reach 80% of lithium recovery from lithium ion batteries, this directive would trigger new thinking in the companies that manufacture them,” he describes.
The incentives to revolutionise mining may already be coming into place. With Europe increasingly under trade pressure, companies and governments are looking inwards for solutions. New technologies like these mean that the needs for materials can be met without compromising environmental safety. “Huge geological potentials remain untapped [because] certain ores are unsuitable for smelting,” she points out. “Our technology is drastically less strict about input into the process, so you can be a lot more flexible about the types of ore that are mined.”
A domestic supply chain combining mining and recycling that minimises carbon emissions at competitive cost is essentially a quiet revolution in how the base materials of society are obtained. These technologies represent a major step towards making that more circular economy possible in the near term.
Useful link
• ‘What if we use clean tech to source critical raw materials within the EU?’
Related content
• A new green process for critical raw materials – interview with CEO Eva Lain on green hydrometallurgy
• The circular economy in your pocket – interview with Prof. Dr. Bernd Friedrich on novel recycling technologies