Lenz, Markus
E-Mail-Adresse
Geburtsdatum
Suchergebnisse
Circularity and environmental sustainability of organic and printed electronics
In this chapter, the possible role and impact of organic and printed electronics (OPE) in a transition toward a circular economy and more sustainable society will be discussed. The learning targets are twofold: first, understanding main environmental issues associated with the emerging field of OPE, and second, identifying, through a systemic perspective, the enabling potential of these technologies.
Qualitative assessment of the exotoxicological effects of residues generated in scandium production technologies
Scandium production from wastes, such as bauxite residue or TiO2 production wastes are gaining focus due to the high economical value of this element. To evaluate the environmental impact of such production technologies a scoring and classification system was developed and adapted to the residues generated during the entire technological process chain. The system enabled us to rank the input and output materials and the residues in each technological step based on environmental toxicity and potential environmental effects.
Life cycle assessment of a novel production route for scandium recovery from bauxite residues
Scandium (Sc) has various technological applications, but the concentrations of Sc in ores are low. Both, the mining of low concentrated Sc and the production of industrial-grade Sc are a heavy burden on the environment. Bauxite residue (BR) from alumina production represents one of the major sources of Sc in Europe (Ochsenkühn-Petropulu et al., 1994). The goal of this study is to assess the environmental impacts from cradle to gate of a novel production route developed in the Scandium Aluminium Europe project (SCALE) to extract Sc at concentrations <100 ppm from BR, to concentrate and upgrade it to pure ScF3 and Sc2O3 and ultimately to refine it to an aluminium scandium master alloy with 2 % Sc mass fraction (AlSc2 %). Results show that the global warming potential (GWP), measured in CO2-eq per kg Sc2O3, generated with the novel route is about half the GWP of the state-of-the-art Sc2O3 production from rare earth tailings when applying equal allocation principles. The initial process step to dissolve BR and extract Sc consumes elevated amounts of acid and energy and is responsible for at least 80 % of the route’s total environmental impact. The amount of the generated filter cake (FC) is equal to the amount of the BR input and is a potential resource for cement clinker production. The ecotoxicological study indicates that both FC and BR are slightly ecotoxic.