Tiny Impact: Using tiny houses as a springboard to reduce our reliance on critical raw materials and fossil fuels in the human building interaction

European climate goals to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celcius are unachievable in their current form because current green energy technologies needed for the energy transition rely too much on critical raw materials (CRMs). This thesis sought to design something that reduces the negative impact living has on the climate while making...

Product Life Extension Strategies for PV in the Netherlands: Theory and Practice

The EU has set out to reduce negative impacts from electricity generation on the environment, human health and towards our dependence on fossil fuels. As the fastest growing renewable source of electricity, photovoltaics plays an important role in the energy transition. The manufacturing of photovoltaic modules requires materials classified as...

The golden age of wasted TVs: Regaining precious metals and critical raw materials from low and medium grade PCBs within the EU, including a technical case study for FDP TVs and monitors

In recent decades Europe has been increasing its demand and consumption of electronics. This has in turn resulted in major outflows of waste electronics (WEEE) that are usually not properly dealt with. This is especially the case for low to medium grade printed circuit boards (PCBs) which unlike higher grade electronics such as computers are...

From requirements to a research agenda for governments governing reuse of critical raw materials in the circular economy

Governmental organisations use a diversity of policy instruments for sustainability goals. In the field of materials, they aim to advance the reuse of materials on the one hand. On the other hand, they also want to control critical raw materials (CRMs) to protect society against scarcity. Information sharing is required to monitor for both...

The role of industrial actors in the circular economy for critical raw materials: a framework with case studies across a range of industries

In this article, we explore concrete examples of circularity strategies for critical raw materials (CRMs) in commercial settings. We propose a company-level framework for systematically evaluating circularity strategies (e.g., material recycling, product reuse, and product or component lifetime extension) in specific applications of CRMs from...

Recovering critical raw materials from end-of-life multi-junction III-V/silicon solar cells: A criticality assessment of gallium, indium and silicon for large scale production of multi-junction III-V/silicon solar cells and an assessment of the environmental impacts and economic feasibility of recycling end-of-life multi-junction III-V/silicon solar panels

This thesis studies the criticality of gallium, indium and silicon for a 1GWp production of III-V/silicon solar cells and assesses the environmental impacts and economic costs \& benefits of a recycling process for these solar cells. III-V/silicon is an emerging solar cell technology, that is expected to enter the market in between 2025 and...

Circular Economy Strategies’ Impact on Critical Raw Materials in Servers: A Case Study from the Perspective of a Dutch Telecommunications Company

Critical Raw Materials (CRMs), materials with high economic importance and supply risk, are the key components of strategic sectors, including Information and Communications Technology (ICT). With foreseeable growth in CRMs demand, principles such as Circular Economy (CE) strategies are gaining attention as means to mitigate risks associated...

A review of methods and data to determine raw material criticality

The assessment of the criticality of raw materials allows the identification of the likelihood of a supply disruption of a material and the vulnerability of a system (e.g. a national economy, technology, or company) to this disruption. Inconclusive outcomes of various studies suggest that criticality assessments would benefit from the...

The Eco-Costs of Material Scarcity, a Resource Indicator for LCA, Derived from a Statistical Analysis on Excessive Price Peaks

The availability of resources is crucial for the socio-economic stability of our society. For more than two decades, there was a debate on how to structure this issue within the context of life-Cycle assessment (LCA). The classical approach with LCA is to describe "scarcity" for future generations (100-1000 years) in terms of absolute...

Critical raw materials in the city: Recycling perspectives for cobalt in The Hague

Cobalt is one of the most important critical raw materials for emerging technologies. There are many incentives for analysis of this metal, from increasing demand for rechargeable batteries, rising prices and social issues involved. This paper is the first attempt to perform a substance flow analysis of cobalt at a city level. The analysis...

The Resilient Economy: A Historical Investigation of Governance on Material Constraint in Britain During the Second World War: Creating Resilience to Critical Materials Problems in the Netherlands

The Netherlands is vulnerable to supply restrictions because of the importance of materials for economic development: materials are at the basis of the society. The materials that are particularly vulnerable to supply disruptions and are of high importance to the economy are called critical raw materials. The Dutch government has adopted the...

REE recovery from end-of-life NdFeB permanent magnet scrap: A critical review

NdFeB permanent magnets have different life cycles, depending on the applications: from as short as 2–3 years in consumer electronics to 20–30 years in wind turbines. The size of the magnets ranges from less than 1 g in small consumer electronics to about 1 kg in electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid and electric vehicles (HEVs), and can be as...

Mapping stocks and flows of neodymium: An assessment of neodymium production and consumption in the Netherlands in 2010 and 2030

The Master's programme Industrial Ecology is jointly organised by Leiden University and Delft University of Technology. Neodymium applications, especially the neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) permanent magnet, have substantially enabled continuous miniaturization in the electronics sector and have become increasingly vital to electric mobility and...

In the Loop: Design of a Serious Game to Create Awareness about Critical Raw Materials

This masters’ thesis is the result of research conducted on companies and critical raw materials in 2012 by TU Delft and the FME-CWM Association. The FME is the largest representative body for the Dutch technological industry and aims to support their member companies. As the result of the 2012 study showed a lack of awareness in their member...

Reuse of EEE consumer products, a potential End-of-Life strategy for CRM's

BACKGROUND Several elements displayed in the 2011 MEErP’s (Methodology for the Ecodesign of Energy-related Products) and JRC’s (European Commission Joint Research Centre) reports which will be used in preparatory studies for measures under the recast of the Ecodesign Directive, indicate that a European list of Critical Raw Materials (CRM’s)...

Critical raw materials in product development: A tool for assessing strengths and weaknesses

The project ‘critical raw materials in product development’ was conducted as a master thesis, for the master Strategic Product Design of the Delft University of Technology, for Accenture Management Consulting. The objective of this master thesis was to (1) assess the awareness of and preparedness for critical raw material risk of high-tech...