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01/4/2007 -
Sustainable Metals Management (2006)
edited by Arnim von Gleich, Robert U. Ayres, and Stefan Gößling-Reisemann
ISBN 1-4020-4007-5. Springer, Dordrecht, the Netherlands. 2006. Hardcover. 607 pages. $209.
The word “sustainability” has become quite important in recent years and increasingly is a determining factor in making decisions about national materials policies and industrial regulations. However, while everyone seems to be in favor of sustainability, fewer people are certain exactly what it is, or how it is assessed. This collection of papers, assembled by a group from INSEAD and the University of Bremen, shows how the concept of sustainability is viewed in the metallurgical community and describes its impact on decisions affecting that community.
Several of the 25 papers in this collection provide a definition of what sustainability is. Perhaps the most effective is that in von Gleich’s introductory paper, which includes these characteristics:- Closed-loop metal cycles, with minimal losses of quantity (dissipation) and quality (downcycling);
- Separate cycles for different metals and alloys, with minimal contamination;
- Minimized use of materials and energy to generate a final product;
- Avoiding excessive burden to the biosphere;
- Avoiding degradation of the biosphere by pollution or destruction of ecosystems;
- No net loss of renewable resources;
- Replacement of non-renewable resources by equivalent levels of additional renewable resource
Presentations by Scharp and Erdmann and by Stahel present similar characteristics.
The difficulty in defining sustainability means that quantitatively assessing it is ever harder. Three papers in the first section discuss the use of thermodynamic properties (entropy, exergy) in the assessment of the sustainability of various materials options. Other papers present a more detailed sustainability analysis of product or process options; especially noteworthy in this regard are Baitz and Wolf’s comparison of aluminum and PVC as candidate materials for a window frame, Müller-Platenberg’s analysis of bauxite mining in Latin America, and the discussion by Griese et al. of materials options in the electronics industry.
As might be suspected, the recyclability of most metals is an important consideration in any discussion of sustainability, and several of the papers in this collection deal with recycling. Rombach’s discussion of aluminum, copper, and zinc recycling is particularly impressive, as is Scharp and Erdmann’s presentation on copper recycling. Whether primary metals extraction is also part of a sustainable cycle is less certain, as several of the papers make clear. A problem that this creates is the conflict between development and sustainability, as primary extraction is often carried out in less-developed countries. The effects of primary mining and smelting in these countries are discussed by several of the authors.
Most of the papers in Sustainable Metals Management deal with non-ferrous metals, in particularly aluminum, copper, and zinc. As a result, the paper by Janke, et al. on secondary steel processing is particularly important. One of the difficulties in recycling both ferrous alloys and aluminum are “residual” elements (impurities or those deliberately added), which cannot be easily removed and ultimately require either dilution with primary metal or downcycling of the remelted scrap to a more heavily alloyed composition. Another is the increasing use of “composite” mixtures of materials which increase the cost of recycling. The difficulty of successfully recycling a composite material is made clear in Teller’s papers on electronics recycling.
As is the case with any collection of papers, some of the presentations are more useful than others, and some are easier to read. The collection has a Eurocentric orientation, and contributions from Asian or North American sources might have been considered. However, most of the papers in this collection are a valuable contribution to the discussion of sustainability and how it can be achieved, and this book is worth spending some time with.
For more on Sustainable Metals Management, visit the Springer web site.
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