Recycling of technology metals from electronics A good opportunity – and a complex challenge Application know-how

Metals

Chemistry material Material science solutions Metallurgy

Material solutions

Recycling

Dr. Christian Hagelüken

Scherpenzeel, NL 2.10.2013

Umicore – a materials technology company

Ø 50% of metal needs from Recycling

Application know-how

Metals

Chemistry material Material science solutions Metallurgy

Recycling

Material solutions

No. 1 ranking in global index companies (Jan. 2013)

14,400 people in ~ 80 industrial sites worldwide, turnover 2012 €: 12.5 Billion (2.4 B excl. metals) Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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Booming product sales & increasing functionality drive demand for (technology) metals Million units 2000 1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600

Annual global sales of mobile phones Source: after Gartner statistics (www.gartner.com)

forecast

Accumulated global sales until 2010 ~ 10 Billion units

400 200 0

470

Smart Phones

19 97 19 98 19 99 20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11

170

300

Drivers: •  growing population (Asia!) •  growing wealth •  technology development & product performance

… next wave: tablet computer: • 2013 tablets will overpass laptops • 2015 more tablets than laptops + PC

Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

Achzet et al., Materials critical to the energy industry, Augsburg, 2011

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Massive shift from geological resources to anthropogenic “deposits” •  Electric & electronic equipment (EEE)

Over 40% of world mine production of copper, tin, antimony, indium, ruthenium & rare earths are annually used in EEE

•  Mobile phones & computer

account for 4% world mine production of gold and silver and for 20% of palladium & cobalt.

•  Cars

Mine production since 1980 / since 1900

> 60% of PGM mine production goes into autocatalysts, increasing significance for electronics (“computer on wheels“) and light metals

100% 90% 80%

% mined in 1900-1980 % mined in 1900-1980

70% 60% 50% 40% 30%

%mined mined 1980-2010 % in in 1980-2010

20% 10%

•  In the last 30 years we extracted > 80% of the REE, PGM, Ga, In, … that have ever been mined

0% Re Ga In Ru Pd Rh Ir REE Si Pt Ta Li Se Ni Co Ge Cu Bi Ag Au

•  Clean energy technologies & other high tech applications will further accelerate demand for technology metals (precious metals, semiconductors, rare earths, refractory metals, …) awithout access to these metals no sustainable development in EU Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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How to avoid clean solutions with dirty feet? No foreseeable absolute scarcity of metals, but: •  Declining grades & increasing complexity of ores •  Need to mine from greater depths and/or in ecological sensitive areas (artic regions, oceans, rain forest etc.)

afootprint of primary metals production can be high •  Energy needs & related climate impact •  Other burden on environment (land, water, biodiversity)

t CO2/ t primary metal

Au

10 000

Pt

Ru Pd

200

10

≈ In

Ag

Sn

≈ Co Cu

0

Other supply risks (political, trade restrictions, economical/ speculation; regional or company oligopolies, …)

and demand surges already today lead to market imbalances & temporary scarcities. → critical metals identification for the EU Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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Recycling & circular economy as key contributors Primary mining •  ~ 5 g/t Au in ore •  Similar for PGMs

Urban mining •  200 g/t Au, 60 g/t Pd & Cu, Sn, Sb, … in PC motherboards •  300 g/t Au, 60 g/t Pd … in cell phones

High grade, millions of units, global dissemination

Low grade, high volume, fixed location

factor 40 & more

Challenge 1: how to accumulate millions of discarded EoL product into „urban mines” of a reasonable (= economically viable) size Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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Recycling of most technology metals still lags way behind … End-of-Life recycling rates for metals in metallic applications

WEEE: precious metal recycling rates below 15%

UNEP (2011) Recycling Rates of Metals – A Status Report, A Report of the Working Group on the Global Flows to the International Resource Panel. http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/Publications/AreasofAssessment/Metals/Recyclingratesofmetals/tabid/56073/Default.aspx

New report (April 2013): Metal Recycling: Opportunities, Limits, Infrastructure http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/Publications/MetalRecycling/tabid/106143/Default.aspx Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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Recycling needs a chain, not a single process - system approach is crucial Example recycling of WEEE Recovery of technology metals from circuit boards

Collection 10,000’s 1000‘s 100‘s

products

Investment needs

Number of actors in Europe

Dismantling Preprocessing

Smelting & refining of technology metals (metallurgy)

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components/ fractions

metals

Total efficiency is determined by weakest step in the chain Make sure that critical fractions reach these plants Example: 30% x Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

90%

x

60%

x

95% =

15% 8

Challenge 2: relevant products/fractions don‘t reach suitable recycling processes a)  Low collection

Logistik 10,000’s Demontage Aufbereitung

3

aambitious targets & new business models are required

b) “Deviation” of collected goods a dubious exports alow quality ”recycling”

Logistik 10,000’s Demontage Aufbereitung

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a“Tracing & Tracking“, controls & enforcement, stakeholder responsibility, transparency :

Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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Technology metals need smart recycling - mass focussed traditional European recycling does not fit Bottle glass

Steel scrap

Circuit boards

Autocatalysts

PM & specialty metals

PGMs

+

Green glass White glass Brown glass

•  “Mono-substance” materials without hazards •  Trace elements remain part of alloys/glass

•  ”Poly-substance” materials, incl. hazardous

Recycling focus on mass & costs

•  Complex components as part of complex products

elements

Place focus on trace elements & value

Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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Recycling – technical fundamentals Success factors are product design & technical-organisational set-up of the recycling chain

source: Markus Reuter, Outotec & Antoinette Van Schaik, MARAS (2010)

Product manufacturing

n manual/mechanical

n

metallurgical recovery

preprocessing

Challenge 3: How to recover low concentrated technology metals from complex products Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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Multi-metal recycling with modern technology Ü High tech & economies of scale Logistik 10,000’s Demontage

Umicore‘s integrated smelter-refinery in Hoboken/Antwerp Treatment of 350 000 t/a , global customer base

Aufbereitung

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ISO 14001 & 9001, OHSAS 18001

•  Recovery of 20 metals with innovative metallurgy from WEEE, catalysts, batteries, smelter by-products etc. Au, Ag, Pt, Pd, Rh, Ru, Ir, Cu, Pb, Ni, Sn, Bi, Se, Te, Sb, As, In (via versatile multi feed process). Co, REE (via specialised process for battery materials)

•  Value of precious metals enables co-recovery of specialty metals (‘paying metals’) •  High energy efficiency by smart mix of materials and sophisticated technology •  High metal yields, minimal emissions & final waste

Concluding - Recycling success factors Recycling prerequisites

Metallurgy

Product design & business models Consumerbehaviour Costs & revenues Collection & logistics Mechanical processing Product perspective

Material perspective

1.  Technical recyclability as basic requirement 2.  Accessibility of relevant component → product design 3.  Economic viability intrinsically or externally created

4.  Completeness of collection business models, legislation, infrastructure

5.  Keeping within recycling chain → transparency of flows 6.  Technical-organisational setup of chain → recycling quality 7.  Sufficient recycling capacity

Complex products require a systemic optimisation & interdisciplinary approaches (product development, process engineering, metallurgy, ecology, social & economic sciences) Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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Focus circular economy - significant improvements still needed at every step Dissipation

Residues

Use Reuse

Ø Consider recycling in product design Product New Ø Develop business manufacture scrap models to close the loop Ø Recycle production from Meta ls, all scrap Industrial materials oys & comp o

unds

Ø Improve range & yields of recovered metals Ø Improve efficiency of energy & water use

Ø Avoid dissipation Ø Minimise residue streams at all steps & recycle these effectively Ø Take a holistic system approach

End-of-Life

cling Recy Residues

RM production from ores

Residues

Geological resources

Mining & Recycling are complementary systems! Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

Ø Improve collection Ø Increase transparency of flows Ø Ensure quality recycling Ø Go beyond mass recycling (more focus on technology metals) Ø Develop innovative technologies to cope with technical recycling challenges 14

Thanks for your attention Energy Materials

Catalysis

•  We develop materials which enable the clean production and storage of energy

•  We develop technologies to treat automotive emissions

Umicore – A Materials Technology Company

Application know-how

Metals

Recycling •  We operate a unique Contact: recycling process to deal with complex industrial residues [email protected] and end-of-life materials

Chemistry material Material science solutions Metallurgy

Recycling

Material solutions

Performance Materials •  We produce a range of essential materials and chemicals based on precious metals and zinc

Contact: [email protected]; www.umicore.com

Confusion in public debate about metals – ? critical metals – rare metals – rare earths - …? H

He

Li

Be

B

C

N

O

F

Ne

Na

Mg

Al

Si

P

S

Cl

Ar

K

Ca

Sc

Ti

Br

Kr

Rb

Sr

Y

Zr

Cs K

Cr

Mn

Fe

Co

Ni

Cu

Zn

Ga

Ge

As Se As

Nb Mo

Tc

Ru

Rh

Pd

Ag

Cd

In

Sn

Sb

Te

I

Xe

Ba La-Lu La* Hf

Ta

W

Re

Os

Ir

Pt

Au

Hg

Tl

Pb

Bi Bi

Po

At

Rn

Ac-Lr Rf Ca Ac-Lr

Db

Sg

Bh

Hs

Mt

Pr

Nd

Pm Sm

Eu

Gd

Tb

Dy

Ho

Er

Tm

Yb

Lu

*

V

Ce

Precious Metals (PM)

Semiconductors

Rare Earth Elements (REE)

Edelmetalle

Halbleiter

Seltene Erden

Technology metals

EU critical metals

Technology metals: descriptive expression, comprising most precious and special metals •  crucial for technical functionality based on their often unique physical & chemical properties (conductivity; melting point; density; hardness; catalytic/optical/magnetic properties, …)

•  mostly used in low concentrations and a complex substance mix (‘spice metals’)

•  Key for “Hi-Tech” and “Clean-Tech” Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

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Efficient production and use of energy will further boost demand for technology metals

Photovoltaic (solar cells) Germanium Gallium Selenium Indium Silver

Light Emitting Diodes (LED) Gallium Indium Germanium Silver

Christian Hagelüken – Closing the Loop, 2.10. 2013

Electric vehicles & batteries Lithium Cobalt Nickel Rare Earth Elements Copper

Fuel Cells Platinum Iridium Cobalt

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