Technology-critical element

A technology-critical element (TCE) is a chemical element that is critical to modern and emerging technologies,[1][2][3] resulting in a striking increase in their usage.[1][4][5][6] Similar terms include critical elements,[7] critical materials,[1] critical raw materials,[5][8] energy-critical elements[4] and elements of security.[9]

Many advanced engineering applications, such as clean-energy production, communications and computing, use emergent technologies that utilize numerous chemical elements.[4] In 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) created the Critical Materials Institute (CMI) to address the issue.[10] In 2015, the European COST Action TD1407 created a network of scientists working and interested on TCEs, from an environmental perspective to potential human health threats.[11]

A study estimated losses of 61 metals to help the development of circular economy strategies, showing that usespans of, often scarce, tech-critical metals are short.[12][13]

  1. ^ a b c U.S. Department of Energy. Critical Materials Strategy. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Energy.
  2. ^ "Technology Critical Elements and their Relevance to the Global Environment Facility" (PDF). Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  3. ^ Dang, Duc Huy; Filella, Montserrat; Omanović, Dario (1 November 2021). "Technology-Critical Elements: An Emerging and Vital Resource that Requires more In-depth Investigation". Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. 81 (4): 517–520. Bibcode:2021ArECT..81..517D. doi:10.1007/s00244-021-00892-6. ISSN 1432-0703. PMID 34655300. S2CID 238995249.
  4. ^ a b c APS (American Physical Society) and MRS (The Materials Research Society) (2011). Energy Critical Elements: Securing Materials for Emerging Technologies (PDF). Washington, D.C.: APS.
  5. ^ a b European Commission (2010). Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials.
  6. ^ Resnick Institute (2011). Critical Materials for Sustainable Energy Applications (PDF). Pasadena, CA: Resnick Institute for Sustainable Energy Science. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-01-14. Retrieved 2019-02-14.
  7. ^ Gunn, G. (2014). Critical Metals Handbook. Wiley.
  8. ^ European Commission (2014). Report on Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials. European Commission.
  9. ^ Parthemore, C. (2011). Elements of Security. Mitigating the Risks of U.S. Dependence on Critical Minerals. Center for New America Security.
  10. ^ Turner, Roger (21 June 2019). "A Strategic Approach to Rare-Earth Elements as Global Trade Tensions Flare". www.greentechmedia.com.
  11. ^ Cobelo-García, A.; Filella, M.; Croot, P.; Frazzoli, C.; Du Laing, G.; Ospina-Alvarez, N.; Rauch, S.; Salaun, P.; Schäfer, J. (2015). "COST action TD1407: network on technology-critical elements (NOTICE)—from environmental processes to human health threats". Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 22 (19): 15188–15194. Bibcode:2015ESPR...2215188C. doi:10.1007/s11356-015-5221-0. PMC 4592495. PMID 26286804.  This article incorporates text available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
  12. ^ "New life cycle assessment study shows useful life of tech-critical metals to be short". University of Bayreuth. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
  13. ^ Charpentier Poncelet, Alexandre; Helbig, Christoph; Loubet, Philippe; Beylot, Antoine; Muller, Stéphanie; Villeneuve, Jacques; Laratte, Bertrand; Thorenz, Andrea; Tuma, Axel; Sonnemann, Guido (19 May 2022). "Losses and lifetimes of metals in the economy" (PDF). Nature Sustainability. 5 (8): 717–726. Bibcode:2022NatSu...5..717C. doi:10.1038/s41893-022-00895-8. ISSN 2398-9629. S2CID 248894322.