HALADA’s Metal Resources Seminar “Recent trends in resources and their circulation” July 26, 2021
HALADA’s Metal Resources Seminar “Recent Trends in Resources and Circulation”
Khomei Halada, President of the Circular Economy & Global Multi-Value Circulation Study Group, promoter of elemental strategies for urban mining and rare metals, and involved in Total Material Requirement (TMR) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for several decades, will discuss and respond to the current status of metal resources and their circulation and resource efficiency.
Three half-day seminars with different topics are planned per year.
The first seminar of 2021, “Recent trends in resources and circulation”, took place on 26 July.
With Prime Minister Kan’s declaration of carbon neutrality for 2050 last autumn, and the formation of the Biden administration and the return to the Paris Agreement in the US this winter, countries that have been lagging behind the rest of the world in dealing with the climate crisis have taken a major step towards carbon neutrality. Already, in countries such as Germany and China, renewable energy conscious industries are replacing the traditional automobile industry as a new technology intensive industry. In the context of this international movement towards carbon neutrality, attention must be paid to the material basis for technological innovation towards carbon neutrality: the resources of the various metallic elements.
Simple estimates predict that the switch to renewable energies will reduce CO2 emissions, but double the associated resource requirements. Renewable energies are mostly used to generate electricity, which is most easily produced by metallic elements such as gold, silver and copper, and the rechargeable batteries that store this electricity use chemical reactions of metallic elements such as lithium, various elements of compound semiconductors used in photovoltaics, and rotational energy such as wind, tidal and hydraulic power. Rare earth elements are used in generators that convert rotational energy from wind, tidal and hydraulic power into electricity.
This seminar will provide a historical and up-to-date overview of recent trends, supply conditions, trade flows and forecasts for rare earth elements, renewable energy technology elements, lithium-ion battery elements, fuel cell elements and digital technology elements.
Iron is by far the most important metal resource in the world. The way in which iron is recycled is important from the point of view of resource recycling and the future of steelmaking technology, which generates CO2. We have invited a special expert in the field of ferrous scrap to look at the trends in ferrous scrap, which is at the heart of resource recycling.
[Date & Time] 26 July 2021, 13:30 ~ 17:00 [Programme]13:30 ~ 14:45 Trends in metal resources: Dr. Khomei Halada, President of CE&MVC Study Group, Honorary Researcher, National Institute for Materials Science
a) Carbon neutrality and metal resources
b) Trends in gold, silver, copper and related metal elements as conductive resources
c) Energy storage resources: trends in Li, Co, Ni, etc.
d) Energy conversion resources: recent trends in rare earths
e) Trends in rare metals, which are attracting attention as IoT resources
f) Don’t forget about infrastructure resources
14:45 ~ 15:00 Break-out table for a break in small groups. Please use this opportunity for a casual exchange of views.
15:00 ~ 15:15 Questions on trends in metal resources
15:15 ~16:00 Latest trends in ferrous scrap Seiichi Hayashi, President, Steel Recycling Research
Subtitle “Conversion of blast furnaces to electric furnaces and scrap as a CO2 reduction measure”
16:00 ~ 16:30 General discussion
16:30 ~ After-school talk (several breakout rooms will be prepared)
[Format] Online seminar using ZOOM (Live and recorded lectures available in Youtube during the day). [Registration] Sign up on Peatix and you will receive access information to ZOOM.