UKRI Interdisciplinary Centre for CircularMetal

从历史上看，金属的发现、开发和应用为人类文明的进化设定了步伐，推动了人们的生活方式，塑造了我们的现代社会。今天，金属是全球制造业的支柱和经济增长的燃料。在英国，金属行业包括11，100家公司，雇用230，000人，直接为英国GDP贡献107亿英镑，间接支持另外750，000名员工，并支撑英国GDP约2000亿英镑。作为一个基础产业，它支撑着每个工业部门的竞争地位，包括航空航天，汽车，建筑，电子，国防和通用工程。然而，金属的提取和加工是非常能源密集型的，并造成严重的环境破坏：七种主要金属（Fe，Al，Cu，Pb，Mn，Ni和Zn）的提取占全球一次能源需求的15%和全球温室气体排放的12%。此外，金属在理论上可以无限回收而不会降解，节省了大量的能源和二氧化碳排放。例如，与提取路线相比，回收钢铁可节省85%的能源，86%的温室气体排放，40%的水消耗和76%的水污染。此外，金属与资源稀缺和供应安全密切相关，这对于几乎100%依赖金属进口的英国来说尤其如此。整个世界面临的重大挑战是将经济增长与环境破坏脱钩，而金属在其中发挥着关键作用。我们的愿景是全金属循环，通过减少、再利用、再制造（包括修理和级联）、回收和再利用，通过二次金属的循环来满足全球对金属材料的需求。全金属循环代表着冶金科学、制造技术和工业格局的范式转变，更重要的是，它将彻底改变我们使用自然资源的方式。全金属循环意味着不再有采矿，不再有金属提取，不再有初级金属。我们将充分利用现有的金属。我们建议建立一个跨学科的循环经济中心，循环金属，以加速从目前的主要采取废物线性经济过渡到全金属循环。我们的目标是到2050年使英国成为第一个实现金属全流通的国家（至少是大批量金属）。这将成为政府努力将资源生产率提高一倍并在2050年实现净零排放的一个组成部分。我们已经组建了一个真正的跨学科学术团队，拥有广泛的学术专业知识，以及一个强大的工业联盟，涉及整个金属供应链，并获得高水平的财政支持。我们将对金属流动进行宏观经济分析，以找出金属行业的循环差距，并制定弥补这些差距的途径、政策和法规;我们将制定循环产品设计原则、循环商业模式和循环供应链战略，以促进向全金属循环的过渡;我们将开发循环合金和循环制造技术，以实现向全金属循环的过渡;我们将积极与更广泛的学术界和工业界、政策制定者和公众接触，尽可能扩大金属全流通的影响。CircularMetal中心将提供消除金属提取需求的能力和途径，估计未来10年对英国的累计经济贡献可能超过1000亿英镑。

Historically, the discovery, development and application of metals have set the pace for the evolution of human civilisation, driven the way that people live, and shaped our modern societies. Today, metals are the backbone of the global manufacturing industry and the fuel for economic growth. In the UK, the metals industry comprises 11,100 companies, employs 230,000 people, directly contributes £10.7bn to the UK GDP, and indirectly supports a further 750,000 employees and underpins some £200bn of UK GDP. As a foundation industry, it underpins the competitive position of every industrial sector, including aerospace, automotive, construction, electronics, defence and general engineering. However, extraction and processing of metals are very energy intensive and cause severe environmental damage: the extraction of seven major metals (Fe, Al, Cu, Pb, Mn, Ni and Zn) accounts for 15% of the global primary energy demand and 12% of the global GHG emission. In addition, metals can in theory be recycled infinitely without degradation, saving enormous amounts of energy and CO2 emission. For instance, compared with the extraction route, recycling of steel saves 85% of energy, 86% GHG emission, 40% water consumption and 76% water pollution. Moreover, metals are closely associated with resource scarcity and supply security, and this is particularly true for the UK, which relies almost 100% on the import of metals. The grand challenge facing the entire world is decoupling economic growth from environmental damage, in which metals have a critical role to play. Our vision is full metal circulation, in which the global demand for metallic materials will be met by the circulation of secondary metals through reduce, reuse, remanufacture (including repair and cascade), recycling and recovery. Full metal circulation represents a paradigm shift for metallurgical science, manufacturing technology and the industrial landscape, and more importantly will change completely the way we use natural resources. Full metal circulation means no more mining, no more metal extraction, and no more primary metals. We will make the best use of the metals that we already have. We propose to establish an Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre, CircularMetal, to accelerate the transition from the current largely take-make-waste linear economy to full metal circulation. Our ambition is to make the UK the first country to realise full metal circulation (at least for the high-volume metals) by 2050. This will form an integral part of the government's efforts to double resource productivity and realise Net Zero by 2050. We have assembled a truly interdisciplinary academic team with a wide range of academic expertise, and a strong industrial consortium involving the full metals supply chain with a high level of financial support. We will conduct macro-economic analysis of metal flow to identify circularity gaps in the metals industry and to develop pathways, policies and regulations to bridge them; we will develop circular product design principles, circular business models and circular supply chain strategies to facilitate the transition to full metal circulation; we will develop circular alloys and circular manufacturing technologies to enable the transition to full metal circulation; and we will engage actively with the wider academic and industrial communities, policy makers and the general public to deliver the widest possible impact of full metal circulation. The CircularMetal centre will provide the capability and pathways to eliminate the need for metal extraction, and the estimated accumulative economic contribution to the UK could be over £100bn in the next 10 years.