CAREER: Enabling clean energy: assessing criticality of byproduct metals

职业：实现清洁能源：评估副产品金属的重要性

• 批准号: 1454166
• 负责人: Gabrielle Gaustad
• 金额: $ 51万
• 依托单位: Rochester Institute of Tech
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-15 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1454166&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Enabling; clean; energy; assessing

1454166 (Gaustad). Global fossil fuel dependence and unprecedented greenhouse gas emissions have led to increasing attention on alternatives for electricity production, energy storage, and personal transportation. However, while there is promise in a variety of clean energy technologies for reducing these burdens, it is critical to fully comprehend supply chain risks for new clean energy technologies and the criticality of their materials in order to ensure that new issues are not being substituted for old ones. One specific challenge in understanding the criticality of several clean energy technologies arises from the prevalence of byproduct mining in these materials systems. Specifically, key materials are mined and produced only as a byproduct of another material system, also historically referred to as "daughter mining" in minerals extraction and metallurgical processing literature. Many of these byproduct material systems have relevancy to the clean energy sector via their use in thin-film photovoltaics, as magnets in wind turbines, and within batteries for electric vehicles. This research will focus on three representative case studies: the Cu-Te system, the Al-Ga system, and the Fe-Nd system. The systems modeling methodological framework to be developed can be applied to other byproduct material systems as well. The overarching goal of the educational activities is to feed a pipeline from elementary to graduate school with underrepresented students who will have an interest in the STEM disciplines. This will be accomplished by targeting specific age groups of female and minority students and engaging them in research. The broader impacts from this work include: 1) reducing the environmental impacts of energy use by enabling clean energy technologies, 2) promoting diversity in the STEM disciplines, 3) supporting multi-disciplinary research, and 4) enhancing public, K-12, and graduate education and awareness in broader sustainability and criticality issues. Specific public outreach events are planned (Imagine RIT and Greentopia). This grant will provide funding for two K-12 educational activities: a research internship for a disadvantaged high school junior via the ACS SEED program and to demonstrate research findings for a middle school girls camps (WE@RIT). Research will focus on supply-demand complications of byproduct mining and understanding the overall criticality of material systems impacting clean energy technologies. Dynamic material flow analysis and scenario simulation will be used to understand how byproduct mining impacts the supply chain. Current supply-demand modeling methods are unable to include carrier metal-byproduct metal material system interactions. Integration of demand forecasts and supply projections will be used to pinpoint supply gap onset conditions. These results will be used to assess dynamic criticality metrics. Current criticality metrics focus on physical scarcity quantification; they do not take into account supply disruptions that may be caused by the carrier system. A fundamental change in these metrics will be developed by broadening them to include economic and environmental implications as well. These enhanced, novel metrics will be used to inform policy that can incentivize strategies for mitigating supply disruption issues.

1454166（高斯塔）。 全球化石燃料依赖和前所未有的温室气体排放导致人们越来越关注电力生产、能源储存和个人交通的替代品。然而，尽管各种清洁能源技术有望减轻这些负担，但充分理解新清洁能源技术的供应链风险及其材料的重要性至关重要，以确保新问题不会取代旧问题。了解几种清洁能源技术的重要性的一个具体挑战来自于这些材料系统中副产品开采的盛行。具体而言，关键材料仅作为另一种材料系统的副产品进行开采和生产，历史上在矿物开采和冶金加工文献中也称为“子采矿”。许多副产品材料系统通过在薄膜光伏发电、风力涡轮机中的磁铁以及电动汽车电池中的应用而与清洁能源领域相关。本研究将重点关注三个代表性案例研究：Cu-Te 系、Al-Ga 系和 Fe-Nd 系。待开发的系统建模方法框架也可以应用于其他副产品材料系统。教育活动的总体目标是为对 STEM 学科感兴趣、代表性不足的学生提供从小学到研究生的渠道。这将通过针对特定年龄组的女性和少数民族学生并让他们参与研究来实现。这项工作的更广泛影响包括：1) 通过采用清洁能源技术来减少能源使用对环境的影响，2) 促进 STEM 学科的多样性，3) 支持多学科研究，4) 加强公众、K-12 和研究生教育以及对更广泛的可持续性和关键性问题的认识。计划开展具体的公共宣传活动（Imagine RIT 和 Greentopia）。这笔赠款将为两项 K-12 教育活动提供资金：通过 ACS SEED 计划为弱势高中三年级学生提供研究实习，并展示中学生女生夏令营 (WE@RIT) 的研究成果。 研究将重点关注副产品开采的供需复杂性，并了解影响清洁能源技术的材料系统的整体重要性。将使用动态物料流分析和场景模拟来了解副产品开采如何影响供应链。当前的供需建模方法无法包括载体金属-副产品金属材料系统的相互作用。需求预测和供应预测的整合将用于查明供应缺口的出现条件。这些结果将用于评估动态关键性指标。当前的关键性指标侧重于物理稀缺性量化；他们没有考虑承运人系统可能造​​成的供应中断。这些指标将发生根本性变化，将其范围扩大到包括经济和环境影响。这些增强的新颖指标将用于为政策提供信息，从而激励缓解供应中断问题的策略。