Christoph Helbig
University of Augsburg
Fourth year PhD student at the University of Augsburg, Germany. MSc in Physics. Works in the interdisciplinary research group 'Resource Lab' of the University of Augsburg. Research areas are material flow analysis, life cycle systainability assessment, raw material criticality assessment and dissipative losses, mostly on metals and minerals. Member of the Student Board of Representatives of the ISIE.
Material flows are called dissipative when they lead to technologically or economically unrecoverable material stocks. These stocks can have effects that are undesirable for circular economies: they always reduce the total usable stock of materials, if included as an impurity in another recycled material they can reduce its quality and if released into the environment they might be harmful for biodiversity or human health. Therefore, measures must be taken globally to reduce dissipative losses without causing other harmful environmental impacts or disproportionate energy requirements.
Dissipative losses have previously been characterized by their intentional use or release, their receiving medium and their unrecyclability. Here, we analyze dissipative losses of metals and metalloids by calculating both a dissipation-to-extraction ratio and a dissipation-to-use ratio, next to classical performance indicators for material cycles, namely end-of-life recycling rate, recycled content ratio, cycling index, accumulation ratio and production efficiency. This assessment for 27 metals is based on the data published by different research groups over two decades in global material flow analyses (MFA). For each of these materials we quantify the share of dissipative losses caused by the main processes: production, fabrication & manufacturing, use-phase and waste management & recycling.
Based on this status-quo analysis, we quantify the effects of resource efficiency improvements on dissipative losses for selected metals (Al, Ga, Cu, Te, Zn, In). Most of these improvements have been described in the scientific literature. Whenever necessary, we complement these projections by our own scenarios. The production efficiency could be improved particularly for by-product metals like gallium, tellurium or indium. Fabrication & manufacturing losses are only a problem for metals with a lot of waste material like aluminum or those applied in thin films like indium. Intended or unintended losses during the use-phase could be avoided through the abolishment of dissipative applications. On a global scale, using the potentials for end-of-life recycling would not only reduce landfill requirements but would also increase the recycled content ratio and consequentially reduce primary material demand and its related dissipative losses. In the long-run, there needs to be further research on where these dissipative material flows can lead to a re-accumulation of metals, potentially in the biosphere, how downcycling effects can be prohibited and whether there are specific waste material flows with metal concentrations above the ore grade that would allow for closed metal cycles.
• Socio-economic metabolism and material flow analysis , • Circular economy
