UKRI Interdisciplinary Circular Economy Centre for Technology Metals (Met4Tech)

循环经济（CE）是传统的线性，即用即弃经济的革命性替代方案。它的核心原则是在最长的时间内保持资源的最高价值，然后在每个生命周期结束时回收、级联和再生产品和材料。金属是循环经济的理想原料。通过精心的管理和良好的技术，从地球上开采的金属可以无限期地重复使用。技术金属（techmetals）是专业金属的一个重要的、独特的子集。尽管与铁和铝等工业金属相比，它们的使用量要小得多，但每种科技金属都有其独特的特性，使其在从智能手机、电池、风力涡轮机、太阳能电池到电动汽车等各种设备中发挥着重要作用。因此，科技金属是未来循环、低碳经济的重要推动者，对它们的需求正在迅速增长。例如，为了满足英国2050年海上风力涡轮机的雄心壮志，将需要10年的全球钕产量。要用电动汽车取代所有英国汽车，将需要目前全球每年生产的钴的200%和锂的75%。英国100%依赖科技金属进口，包括从具有地缘政治风险的国家进口。因此，一些技术金属被称为关键原材料（高经济重要性和高供应中断风险）。在欧盟认为至关重要的27种原材料中，只有4种的报废回收投入率高于10%。我们的UKRI技术CE中心首次汇集了世界领先的研究人员，以最大限度地利用从一级和二级来源提供技术金属的机会，以及主要材料管理，创建国家技术金属循环经济路线图，以加速我们迈向循环经济。这将有助于英国实现其工业战略清洁增长议程和雄心勃勃的英国2050年气候变化目标，提供安全和环境可接受的科技金属供应。未来的科技循环经济面临许多挑战。随着需求的增长，需要新的采矿，我们必须尽可能降低这种初级生产的环境足迹。技术金属的材料管理是困难的，因为它们的命运往往难以追踪。大多数到达英国时“隐藏”在复杂的产品中，难以回收。回收效率低下，消费者可能没有动力回收，政策和立法举措（如扩大生产者责任）侧重于大批量金属，而不是少量技术金属。科技金属价值链的不同部分之间缺乏端到端的可见性和联系。TechMet联盟汇集了埃克塞特大学、伯明翰大学、莱斯特大学、曼彻斯特大学和英国地质调查局，他们已经在研究如何改善原材料循环，制造可重复使用和再循环的商品，回收电池等复杂商品，以及在需要回收之前尽可能长时间地使用和再利用设备。我们的首要任务之一是追踪技术金属在英国经济中的当前流动，尽管这是基本的，但人们对其知之甚少。该中心将进行新的跨学科研究，以改善循环的每个阶段，并加入价值链——原材料可以被新开采和回收，制造技术可以直接与再利用和再循环联系起来。我们的技术金属的环境足迹将被评估。商业、监管和社会专家将建议英国如何最好地将所有这些阶段结合在一起，以建立一个新的技术金属循环经济，并制定实施战略。

The Circular Economy (CE) is a revolutionary alternative to a traditional linear, make-use-dispose economy. It is based on the central principle of maintaining continuous flows of resources at their highest value for the longest period and then recovering, cascading and regenerating products and materials at the end of each life cycle. Metals are ideal flows for a circular economy. With careful stewardship and good technology, metals mined from the Earth can be reused indefinitely.Technology metals (techmetals) are an essential, distinct, subset of specialist metals. Although they are used in much smaller quantities than industrial metals such as iron and aluminium, each techmetal has its own specific and special properties that give it essential functions in devices ranging from smart phones, batteries, wind turbines and solar cells to electric vehicles. Techmetals are thus essential enablers of a future circular, low carbon economy and demand for many is increasing rapidly. E.g., to meet the UK's 2050 ambition for offshore wind turbines will require 10 years' worth of global neodymium production. To replace all UK-based vehicles with electric vehicles would require 200% of cobalt and 75% of lithium currently produced globally each year. The UK is 100% reliant on imports of techmetals including from countries that represent geopolitical risks. Some techmetals are therefore called Critical Raw Materials (high economic importance and high risk of supply disruption). Only four of the 27 raw materials considered critical by the EU have an end-of-life recycling input rate higher than 10%.Our UKRI TechMet CE Centre brings together for the first time world-leading researchers to maximise opportunities around the provision of techmetals from primary and secondary sources, and lead materials stewardship, creating a National Techmetals Circular Economy Roadmap to accelerate us towards a circular economy. This will help the UK meet its Industrial Strategy Clean Growth agenda and its ambitious UK 2050 climate change targets with secure and environmentally-acceptable supplies of techmetals.There are many challenges to a future techmetal circular economy. With growing demand, new mining is needed and we must keep the environmental footprint of this primary production as low as possible. Materials stewardship of techmetals is difficult because their fate is often difficult to track. Most arrive in the UK 'hidden' in complex products from which they are difficult to recover. Collection is inefficient, consumers may not feel incentivised to recycle, and policy and legislative initiatives such as Extended Producer Responsibility focus on large volume metals rather than small quantity techmetals. There is a lack of end-to-end visibility and connection between different parts of techmetal value chains.The TechMet consortium brings together the Universities of Exeter, Birmingham, Leicester, Manchester and the British Geological Survey who are already working on how to improve the raw materials cycle, manufacture goods to be re-used and recycled, recycle complex goods such as batteries and use and re-use equipment for as long as possible before it needs recycling. One of our first tasks is to track the current flows of techmetals through the UK economy, which although fundamental, is poorly known. The Centre will conduct new interdisciplinary research on interventions to improve each stage in the cycle and join up the value chain - raw materials can be newly mined and recycled, and manufacturing technology can be linked directly to re-use and recycling. The environmental footprint of our techmetals will be evaluated. Business, regulatory and social experts will recommend how the UK can best put all these stages together to make a new techmetals circular economy and produce a strategy for its implementation.