Applying and advancing the economic resource scarcity potential (ESP) method for rare earth elements
dc.contributor.author | Wall, F | |
dc.contributor.author | Pell, R | |
dc.contributor.author | Yan, X | |
dc.contributor.author | Bailey, G | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-10-25T12:12:50Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2018-10-25 | |
dc.description.abstract | A number of studies have identified rare earth elements (REE) as critical metals due to their high economic importance combined with a high risk of supply disruption (Du et al, 2011; Nassar et al, 2015; Schneider et al, 2014). The current methods used to calculate resource depletion in life cycle assessments (LCA) neglect socio-economic, regulatory and geopolitical aspects, nor do they include functionalities such as material recycling or reuse that control the supply of raw materials. These are important factors in determining criticality and are the controlling factors on REE availability rather than geological availability. The economic scarcity potential (ESP) method introduced by Schneider et al. (2014) provides a framework to calculate criticality. This paper reviews the ESP method and advances the method based on recent developments in material criticality. ESP criticality scores for 15 REE with the addition of Au, Cu, platinum-group metals (PGM), Fe and Li are measured. The results highlight that Nd and Dy are the most critical REE, owing mainly to the high demand growth forecast for these two elements. A pathway is presented for incorporating these calculated scores into the ReCiPe life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) method of a LCA. | en_GB |
dc.description.sponsorship | Research was funded by NERC SoS RARE consortium (NE/M011429/1), www.sosrare.org with University of Exeter co-funding for R. Pell’s PhD project. The authors appreciate the funding assistance from the Camborne School of Mines Trust to visit and present this research in USA and gain insight from the Critical Metals team from Yale University and Nedal Nassar and his team at USGS. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.citation | Published online 25 October 2018. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.doi | 10.1016/j.resourpol.2018.10.003 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10871/34452 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_GB |
dc.publisher | Elsevier | en_GB |
dc.rights | This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). | |
dc.title | Applying and advancing the economic resource scarcity potential (ESP) method for rare earth elements | en_GB |
dc.type | Article | en_GB |
dc.identifier.issn | 0301-4207 | |
dc.description | This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this record. | en_GB |
dc.identifier.journal | Resources Policy | en_GB |
dc.rights.uri | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ | |
dcterms.dateAccepted | 2018-10-08 |
Files in this item
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
Except where otherwise noted, this item's licence is described as This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).