Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining and Separation Based on Eudialyte: A New European Way
Neodymium and dysprosium are two rare earth elements (REEs), out of a group of 17 elements. Due to their unique properties, REEs gained increasing importance in many new technologies, like wind turbines, batteries, etc. However, the production of REEs requires high material and energy consumption an...
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MDPI AG
2016-10-01
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| Series: | Resources |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/5/4/32 |
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| author | Andrea Schreiber Josefine Marx Petra Zapp Jürgen-Friedrich Hake Daniel Voßenkaul Bernd Friedrich |
| author_facet | Andrea Schreiber Josefine Marx Petra Zapp Jürgen-Friedrich Hake Daniel Voßenkaul Bernd Friedrich |
| author_sort | Andrea Schreiber |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Neodymium and dysprosium are two rare earth elements (REEs), out of a group of 17 elements. Due to their unique properties, REEs gained increasing importance in many new technologies, like wind turbines, batteries, etc. However, the production of REEs requires high material and energy consumption and is associated with considerable environmental burdens. Due to the strong dependency of European industry on Chinese REE exports, this paper presents a possible European production chain of REEs based on the mineral eudialyte found in Norra Kärr (Sweden). This European production is compared to a Chinese route, as China produces more than 85% of today’s REEs. Bayan Obo as the largest REE deposit in China is considered as the reference system. Using the life cycle assessment method, the environmental impacts of both production lines are assessed. This study presents newly-estimated data of a possible Swedish eudialyte-based production route for Europe. Results for the new eudialyte process route show reduced environmental burdens, although the total REE content in eudialyte is much smaller than in the Bayan Obo deposit. Especially, the results for dysprosium from eudialyte outreach those for Bayan Obo due to the higher content of heavy rare earth elements. |
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| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2079-9276 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-14T06:57:14Z |
| publishDate | 2016-10-01 |
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| spelling | doaj.art-a47765b0a1b54e919d97cd9c26ad9a062022-12-22T02:06:52ZengMDPI AGResources2079-92762016-10-01543210.3390/resources5040032resources5040032Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining and Separation Based on Eudialyte: A New European WayAndrea Schreiber0Josefine Marx1Petra Zapp2Jürgen-Friedrich Hake3Daniel Voßenkaul4Bernd Friedrich5Institute of Energy and Climate Research—Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (IEK-STE), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich D-52425, GermanyInstitute of Energy and Climate Research—Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (IEK-STE), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich D-52425, GermanyInstitute of Energy and Climate Research—Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (IEK-STE), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich D-52425, GermanyInstitute of Energy and Climate Research—Systems Analysis and Technology Evaluation (IEK-STE), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich D-52425, GermanyInstitute of Process Metallurgy and Metal (IME), RWTH Aachen University, Intzestraße 3, Aachen D-52056, GermanyInstitute of Process Metallurgy and Metal (IME), RWTH Aachen University, Intzestraße 3, Aachen D-52056, GermanyNeodymium and dysprosium are two rare earth elements (REEs), out of a group of 17 elements. Due to their unique properties, REEs gained increasing importance in many new technologies, like wind turbines, batteries, etc. However, the production of REEs requires high material and energy consumption and is associated with considerable environmental burdens. Due to the strong dependency of European industry on Chinese REE exports, this paper presents a possible European production chain of REEs based on the mineral eudialyte found in Norra Kärr (Sweden). This European production is compared to a Chinese route, as China produces more than 85% of today’s REEs. Bayan Obo as the largest REE deposit in China is considered as the reference system. Using the life cycle assessment method, the environmental impacts of both production lines are assessed. This study presents newly-estimated data of a possible Swedish eudialyte-based production route for Europe. Results for the new eudialyte process route show reduced environmental burdens, although the total REE content in eudialyte is much smaller than in the Bayan Obo deposit. Especially, the results for dysprosium from eudialyte outreach those for Bayan Obo due to the higher content of heavy rare earth elements.http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/5/4/32rare earth metalsneodymiumdysprosiumlife cycle assessmentBayan Oboeudialyte |
| spellingShingle | Andrea Schreiber Josefine Marx Petra Zapp Jürgen-Friedrich Hake Daniel Voßenkaul Bernd Friedrich Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining and Separation Based on Eudialyte: A New European Way Resources rare earth metals neodymium dysprosium life cycle assessment Bayan Obo eudialyte |
| title | Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining and Separation Based on Eudialyte: A New European Way |
| title_full | Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining and Separation Based on Eudialyte: A New European Way |
| title_fullStr | Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining and Separation Based on Eudialyte: A New European Way |
| title_full_unstemmed | Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining and Separation Based on Eudialyte: A New European Way |
| title_short | Environmental Impacts of Rare Earth Mining and Separation Based on Eudialyte: A New European Way |
| title_sort | environmental impacts of rare earth mining and separation based on eudialyte a new european way |
| topic | rare earth metals neodymium dysprosium life cycle assessment Bayan Obo eudialyte |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/5/4/32 |
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