CAREER: Enabling clean energy: assessing criticality of byproduct metals

Rochester Institute Of Tech, Rochester NY

Investigators

Abstract

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.