Doris Schüler

Doris Schüler is senior scientist at the Öko-Institut e.V. (Institute for Applied Ecology) in Germany. She is an expert in resource efficiency, critical metals, waste management, environmental technologies, life cycle analysis and material flow analysis. Over the last decade, she has worked for national and international authorities and companies, with several years’ experience as a team leader. Doris has a PhD in mechanical engineering.

Securing sustainable access to raw materials has increasingly become a key strategy for the European Commission in recent years. In particular, critical metals like rare earths (neodymium, dysprosium, europium, terbium, etc.) and other metals such as gallium, indium, germanium have become the focus of politics, economics and science in Europe. Their unique properties make them important components of numerous high-tech applications and green technologies. Many of these applications make it possible to create technologies that fulfil several of the EU’s important goals, like reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Simultaneously, these applications and their embedded critical metals secure the relevant innovative industries in Europe – renewable energy production, the automotive industry, the electronics industry etc. – which, in turn, guarantees economic development, safeguarding of jobs and competitiveness in a globalized world. Important sustainable strategies to address bottlenecks in the supply of critical metals are:

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• Higher material efficiency;
• Reuse, recycling and waste reduction;
• Increasing European mine production or by-product extraction;
• Substitution.

All four strategies are required in equal measure, as they each have their specific limitations.

Two examples of significant improvements in material efficiency are a reduction of the dysprosium used in permanent magnets and a reduction of the lanthanum used in refinery catalysts, as a response to the rare earth crisis. The fact that both these moves towards higher material efficiencies were implemented in the space of one to three years proves that industries have a strong innovation drive. Nevertheless, this success will not be sufficient to meet the long-term significant increase in dysprosium demand.

Recycling cannot provide large secondary raw material volumes in the short-term since the raw materials will only enter the recycling circuit many years later. Consequently, recycling is an important strategy for a secure long-term raw material supply but not an appropriate instrument to cope with short- and mid-term supply shortages.

Implementation of sustainable primary production chains is an ambitious goal for the EU because mining currently takes place in a highly competitive international market, often with insufficient environmental and social standards in many mining countries. Furthermore, the international mining business is dominated by non-European countries, while European industries mainly focus on manufacturing at the other end of the value chain.

These circumstances make substitution an essential European strategy for securing its raw material supply, particularly as Europe’s industries have the innovative capacity to successfully develop and implement substitutes. One further effect is that the development of new substitutes opens new market opportunities in the green technologies sector.

One example of the rapid development of substitutes is the fast market penetration of LEDs. At the beginning of 2011, the state of the art for lighting technology was fluorescent lamps and LEDs only had a small market share. There was no substitute available for rare earths in phosphors. Just two and a half years later the world is witnessing rapid growth in the market share of LEDs. There are even rare earth-free LEDs commercially available. This rapid technological leap occurred surprisingly quickly and illustrates the innovative potential of European and global industries in business areas with high market volumes.

The table below gives an overview of certain green technologies needing critical raw materials, and highlights potential substitution strategies that are already implemented or currently in development.

Table:  Selected green technologies and their associated critical elements and substitution potentials

Substitution is clearly a complex issue. First of all, there are only a few one-to-one material substitutions. Instead, a partial application of new technologies and processes is necessary, for example drives with gears in wind turbines substitute direct-drives. Other substitutions even include the whole system, i.e. the application of LED lamps instead of fluorescent lamps.

Additional important aspects of substitution address the specific technical requirements that should be met. For example, electric motor types without rare earths are available as substitutes and are successfully used in some electric vehicles. However, these substitutes need more space, making their use difficult in hybrid electric cars. Therefore, car manufacturers report that they favour compact electric motors with permanent magnets in hybrid electric vehicles.

Thin film solar technology further illustrates the relevance of technological aspects of substitution. The flat solar panels used for thin film technology allow for lightweight constructions, which offer a wide range of architectural design opportunities in contrast to the heavier traditional silicon-based solar panels that require a more stable underframe.

The environmental impact of substitution should also be carefully considered, since the environmental footprint of alternative substitutes must be calculated. For example, wind turbines without rare earths require significantly more copper. Copper is not seen as a critical material, but its production may cause significant water and air emissions because many mines and refineries around the world operate using equipment with insufficiently high environmental standards. Consequently, sustainable substitution strategies should always include the sustainable production of the substitute.

Overall, substitution is seen as an essential European strategy to secure raw material supply for green technologies and decarbonisation. Implementation is complex due to the wide range of applications of critical raw materials, their substitutes and their specific technical requirements. As a result, the implementation of substitution involves many sectors and stakeholders at all levels of national and international action. The EU has recognized the importance of substitution and addresses it within the European Innovative Partnerships (EIP), the 7^th European research framework program and JRC’s research activities.