On Circularity, Complexity and (Elements of) Hope

Desing, Harald; Blum, Nicola

doi:10.55845/wnhn7338

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Moreover, the material complexity of technologies has increased significantly-requiring most of the elements of the periodic table (Zepf et al, 2014)-, which results in growing challenges not only to recycle all elements, but also to retain their functions (Graedel and Miatto, 2022;Desing and Blum, 2023).…”

Section: Materials Mobilization Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One example is substituting Ag in PV (Zhang et al, 2021;Piano et al, 2019), another one is replacing Li in batteries (McNeil, 2022). It may be beneficial to research the possibilities to substitute with more abundant elements, such as H, C, N, O, Fe, Si, or Al ("elements of hope" (Diederen, 2010;Desing and Blum, 2023)), while improving the understanding of impacts on energy demand and planetary boundaries. Another research line could be to incorporate and immobilize (mandatory) abandoned elements-e. g., Hg (United Nations Environment Programme, 2019), Pb, Cd, atmospheric C-in long lasting infrastructure.…”

Section: Research Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mobilizing materials to enable a fast energy transition: a conceptual framework

Desing¹,

Widmer²,

Bardi³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Limiting climate heating while meeting basic needs of all necessitates eliminating fossil carbon emissions. This paper discusses the dynamics of mobilizing materials required for large-scale deployment of renewable energy, which entail: 1) availability of resources in the environment and technosphere; 2) accessibility, which depends on resource quality and available technologies; 3) processability, which depends on energy availability, processing capacity, and environmental impacts on planetary boundaries; and 4) operability, which depends on social acceptance and geopolitical agreements. Also, materials can be mobilized through four routes: 1) increasing primary production; 2) diverting existing primary production; 3) repurposing existing in-use stocks; and 4) re-mining previous wastes and emissions. The interplay of these enabling factors determines the maximum possible rate of material mobilization and thus of the energy transition itself. This paper presents and discusses a framework to explore joint energy-material transformations, enabling to consider material aspects in transition modelling and guide technological developments.

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Section: Materials Mobilization Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%