The role of Critical Raw Materials in reaching net-zero emissions
In our recent report, Decarbonisation: materials and circularity challenges for clean technologies, we discover the views of experts at our roundtable, held in March this year. The event was held by our Environment, Sustainability and Energy Division (ESED).
During the event, experts from academia, industry, and policy discussed the challenges of creating a circular economy for batteries, electric vehicles and wind power, and particularly on the critical materials and precious elements needed for this technology.
A circular economy is critical for the sustainable deployment of clean technologies for a decarbonised future. Many technologies are not reused or recycled at the end of their lives, which represents a waste of important materials, and also contributes to the problem of waste in the environment.
Chemists are working to develop methods for recovering materials from waste technology – in particular focusing on areas of technological importance such as electric vehicle battery end-of-life processing.
Chemists are also considering technology design and construction when developing their research into critical material use and recovery.
More tailored recovery techniques are needed to avoid the unintentional loss of critical materials during end-of-life technology processing, while chemical solutions are needed to enable circular design, such as the safe disassembly of batteries and the reuse of their valuable components.
The discussion reached four main conclusions:
1. A transition from a linear to a circular economy is fundamental for a sustainable future for batteries, electric vehicles and wind power.
2. Collaboration is critical, between industry partners and between industry and academia.
3. The chemical sciences are contributing solutions for the more sustainable use of CRMs in low carbon technologies.
4. Remaining challenges need innovative solutions from the chemical sciences.
Read the report to learn about the advancements that chemists, engineers and designers are making in this field, and the challenges we still face.
Sustainable Elements for Energy Storage – a video series
Sustainable energy storage solutions are going to be an essential part of the transition to net zero, and chemical scientists are key to making this happen. In our new series of videos, we meet four scientists who are working on sourcing, retaining, and recycling the materials and rare elements in batteries.