Backlighting the European Indium Recycling Potentials

Abstract

With increased understanding of the effects of human activities on the environment and added awareness of the increasing societal value of natural resources, researchers have begun to focus on the characterization of elemental cycles. Indium has captured significant attention due to the potential for supply shortages and nonexistent recycling at end of life. Such a combination of potentially critical features is magnified for countries that depend on imports of indium, notably many European countries. With the aims of analyzing the dynamics of material flows and of estimating the magnitude of secondary indium sources available for recycling, the anthropogenic indium cycle in Europe has been investigated by material flow analysis. The results showed that the region is a major consumer of finished goods containing indium, and the cumulative addition of indium in urban mines was estimated at about 500 tonnes of indium. We discuss these results from the perspective of closing the metal cycle in the region. Securing access to critical raw materials is a priority for Europe, but the preference for recycling metal urban mines risks to remain only theoretical for indium unless innovations in waste collection and processing unlock the development of technologies that are economically feasible and environmentally sustainable. Keywords:industrial ecology industrial metabolism life cycle assessment (LCA) material flow analysis (MFA) recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE)Supporting information is linked to this article on the JIE website

Shedding Light on the Anthropogenic Europium Cycle in the EU–28. Marking Product Turnover and Energy Progress in the Lighting Sector

“…Lastly, a retrospective on europium demand and stock accumulation and their implications on material and energy efficiency in lighting is discussed in the results. This work is part of a paper series focusing on selected metals in the EU-28 deemed relevant for interlinkages between the metal supply-demand dynamic and energy systems [33,34]. We expect that the outcomes will be informative for readers from the climate change and critical materials policy communities as well as to the lighting and electronics industries.…”

Endangered elements, critical raw materials and conflict minerals

“…43 Reasons for the very low recycling rates, especially of metals and semi-metals such as indium, germanium, gallium and the REE, as are used in electronics and energy applications, are discussed elsewhere in the context of feedback control of mineral supply. 44 The specific case of indium has been addressed in another study, 45 in which the importance of end-of-life collection of the metal (which is currently almost nonexistent) to improve its recycling rate is stressed. 45 This point was also highlighted in a recent European Commission report.…”

“…44 The specific case of indium has been addressed in another study, 45 in which the importance of end-of-life collection of the metal (which is currently almost nonexistent) to improve its recycling rate is stressed. 45 This point was also highlighted in a recent European Commission report. 46…”

End-of-Life Liquid Crystal Display Recovery: Toward a Zero-Waste Approach

“…This material shows characteristics of transparency to visible light, electric conduction, and thermal reflection [13,14]. The presence of indium, with concentrations around 150 ppm, higher than that in the ores [6,[15][16][17][18], has pushed research towards the development of high-efficiency recovery processes since the metal was classified as critical raw material (CRM) by the European Commission [19,20]. Currently, China is the main global producer (around 57% of the entire amount), followed by South Korea and Japan.…”

“…In this regard, Ciacci et al, estimated an indium in-use stock of around 500 tons/year that is able to respond to the global market, which is around 15 times higher than the current European demand, proving the possibility to develop a circular indium production. The study included different kinds of waste with a metal content (e.g., motor cars, alkaline batteries), but it identified LCDs and its equipment with flat panels as potential secondary sources with the highest indium content [20]. The value of the end-of-life LCD is also confirmed by Wang et al who reported an LCD production higher than 370 million in 2014 (only in China), and they predicted that the development of an LCD recycling strategy could cover around 48% of the indium demand by 2035 [23].…”