Producing electric cars, wind turbines and solar panels requires minerals such as dysprosium, neodymium or praseodymium, elements known as rare earths, which are very scarce and concentrated in few countries. Because these are critical and strategic raw materials, the RC-Metals project, led by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), a State Agency for scientific research and technological development, aims to recover the metals contained in electronic waste.

A pilot plant is thus being built that is unique in Europe (ISASMELTMF600), and where, thanks to the use of processes with different types of technologies such as metal melting in a molten bath, it will be able to give these metals a second life. ‘There may be supply problems for some metals due to the speed with which we are consuming them,’ explains the principal investigator of the project for the recycling of critical metals (RC-Metals), Félix Antonio López, a CSIC (Spanish National Research Council) researcher at the National Centre for Metallurgical Research (CENIM-CSIC).

‘The energy transition is demanding a high consumption of raw materials and, at the same time, Europe produces two million tonnes per year in waste electrical and electronic equipment, which is equivalent to 16.2 kg per person, the highest rate in the world. This waste contains valuable metals that we need to recover,’ says López.

Because of the vital role these metals play in the energy transition, Lopez points out that dependence on rare earths will increase in the future. ‘Copper is an essential metal in the electrification and decarbonisation of the economy,’ the scientist points out, ’also in mobility, from the batteries in electric vehicles to solar photovoltaic energy.’

The RC-Metals project will use different technologies to recover materials from electronic waste and manufacture high-value alloys through molten bath metal melting processes (ISASMELT-GLENCOR).