Substance Flow Analysis of Indium in Taiwan

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

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“…; Chang et al. ). ELV = end‐of‐life vehicle: indium concentration based on (Cullbrand and Magnusson ; Widmer et al ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…), Taiwan (Chang et al. ), the United States (Goonan ), Australia (Werner et al ), and the world (Licht et al. ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Backlighting the European Indium Recycling Potentials

Ciacci

Werner

Vassura

et al. 2018

J of Industrial Ecology

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“…Losses in production may arise from the manufacture of LCD and LED products, architectural glass, and solar panels but were assumed to be negligible for alloys and thermal interface materials for printed circuit boards. Further detail on the losses of indium during manufacturing processes is available from refs – , although, as noted later, the effect of these losses is minimal in the context of the overall Australian indium cycle. Given the prevalence of ITO recycling in recent years, it was assumed that ITO imports were also recycled.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Apportionment of semifinished imports to finished goods, taking into account production efficiencies. Apportionment estimates are derived as an average of Chang et al, Licht et al, Nakajima et al, and Yoshimura et al, modified to represent the Australian context. All units are in kilograms, with cumulative flows from 1988 to 2015 depicted.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The apportionment of semi-finished goods for domestic manufacturing of indium-related products is shown in Figure 2 alongside estimated production losses. The construction of this figure was based on global averages except for cases in which more information about the Australian context 26 Licht et al, 27 Nakajima et al, 28 and Yoshimura et al, 29 was available (e.g., lack of indium tin oxide (ITO) manufacturing from unwrought indium). Losses in production may arise from the manufacture of LCD and LED products, architectural glass, and solar panels but were assumed to be negligible for alloys and thermal interface materials for printed circuit boards.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Looking Down Under for a Circular Economy of Indium

Werner

Ciacci

Mudd

et al. 2018

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Indium is a specialty metal crucial for modern technology, yet it is potentially critical due to its byproduct status in mining. Measures to reduce its criticality typically focus on improving its recycling efficiency at end-of-life. This study quantifies primary and secondary indium resources ("stocks") for Australia through a dynamic material-flow analysis. It is based on detailed assessments of indium mineral resources hosted in lead-zinc and copper deposits, respective mining activities from 1844 to 2013, and the trade of indium-containing products from 1988 to 2015. The results show that Australia's indium stocks are substantial, estimated at 46.2 kt in mineral resources and an additional 14.7 kt in mine wastes. Australian mineral resources alone could meet global demand (∼0.8 kt/year) for more than five decades. Discarded material from post-consumer products, instead, is negligible (43 t). This suggests that the resilience of Australia's indium supply can best be increased through efficiency gains in mining (such as introducing domestic indium refining capacity) rather than at the end of the product life. These findings likely also apply to other specialty metals, such as gallium or germanium, and other resource-dominated countries. Finally, the results illustrate that national circular economy strategies can differ substantially.

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Mapping the upstream journey of China's indium: A trade-linked substance flow analysis

Lin

et al. 2022

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Substance Flow Analysis of Indium in Taiwan

Cited by 10 publications

References 16 publications

Backlighting the European Indium Recycling Potentials

Backlighting the European Indium Recycling Potentials

Looking Down Under for a Circular Economy of Indium

Mapping the upstream journey of China's indium: A trade-linked substance flow analysis

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