Current challenges in copper recycling: aligning insights from material flow analysis with technological research developments and industry issues in Europe and North America

Epoxy-Copper Composite Materials for Injection Mold Optimal Design: a Low-Run Production Simulative Study

“…The results of this research are a first understanding of the improvements in the injection process that are obtained when an epoxy resin mold is reinforced with higher thermal conductivity particles or fibers in certain orientations, such as those of copper metal. According to Agrawal and Sahu (2010), Dong et al (2020), Loilb andTercero Espinoza (2021), all three sources agree that copper is a highly sustainable material and that is currently being recycled in several countries. In our particularly case, copper could be recycled once it has properly been separated from the resin matrix.…”

The Materials Science behind Sustainable Metals and Alloys

“…This challenge can be also referred to as recycling of nanoscrap and as multi-or polymetal recycling. 87,109,111,135,417 The retrieval of copper via recycling must consider three main stages, namely, sorting processes, separation techniques, and the metallurgical recovery and its by-products. 135 A very important aspect is the gradually decreasing global availability of new scrap, which has high purity, as it is directly produced during manufacturing, i.e.…”

“…Currently in the EU about 50% of the copper is produced from scrap and 50% from primary synthesis and production. 11,135,385 Compared to the roughly 3.8 MWh per tonne copper produced, consumed by copper smelters in global average, the best available technology can produce copper with just 1.75 MWh per tonne copper, but the lowest energy intensity shown by international benchmarking studies is approximately 2.05 MWh per tonne copper. 71 This implies that 46% of copper smelting energy could be saved using currently available technologies.…”

“…This means that the designs of corresponding metallurgical processes do not only have to take into account the amount, origin, sorting, transport, and purity of the corresponding scrap, but they must also consider processes in which, for example, mineral raw materials can be processed together with scrap, possibly even in the same aggregate. ,,− Another interesting research strand is to develop impurity-tolerant alloy variants that can be made from the largest possible fractions of scrap. ,,− A related consideration is not only that scrap is used to make new alloys but also that these new materials become scrap themselves when they reach the end of their product life. They must then again enter the (secondary) synthesis cycle.…”

“…To identify research opportunities with high leverage on sustainability requires consideration of the minerals, metals, processes and amounts produced. For example, research challenges differ profoundly among such diverse problems as the reduction of CO 2 emissions in iron making − (see sections –); development of scrap-tolerant aluminum alloys ,,− (see sections , , and ); electrochemical recovery of gold and copper from consumer electronics ,− (see sections , , , and ); extraction of lithium from scrapped vehicle batteries ,, (see section ); sustainable production of nickel and cobalt ,, (see sections and ); or recovery of precious metal catalysts (see section ).…”