Novel Indicators for the Quantification of Resilience in Critical Material Supply Chains, with a 2010 Rare Earth Crisis Case Study.

We introduce several new resilience metrics for quantifying the resilience of critical material supply chains to disruptions and validate these metrics using the 2010 rare earth element (REE) crisis as a case study. Our method is a novel application of Event Sequence Analysis, supplemented with interviews of actors across the entire supply chain. We discuss resilience mechanisms in quantitative terms-time lags, response speeds, and maximum magnitudes-and in light of cultural differences between Japanese and European corporate practice.

A Life Cycle Assessment Case Study of Coal-Fired Electricity Generation with Humidity Swing Direct Air Capture of CO versus MEA-Based Postcombustion Capture.

Most carbon capture and storage (CCS) envisions capturing CO from flue gas. Direct air capture (DAC) of CO has hitherto been deemed unviable because of the higher energy associated with capture at low atmospheric concentrations. We present a Life Cycle Assessment of coal-fired electricity generation that compares monoethanolamine (MEA)-based postcombustion capture (PCC) of CO with distributed, humidity-swing-based direct air capture (HS-DAC).

Framework for resilience in material supply chains, with a case study from the 2010 Rare Earth Crisis.

In 2010, Chinese export restrictions caused the price of the rare earth element neodymium to increase by a factor of 10, only to return to almost normal levels in the following months. This despite the fact that the restrictions were not lifted. The significant price peak shows that this material supply chain was only weakly resistant to a major supply disruption.

Recycling potential of neodymium: the case of computer hard disk drives.

Neodymium, one of the more critically scarce rare earth metals, is often used in sustainable technologies. In this study, we investigate the potential contribution of neodymium recycling to reducing scarcity in supply, with a case study on computer hard disk drives (HDDs). We first review the literature on neodymium production and recycling potential.

Energy and climate impacts of producing synthetic hydrocarbon fuels from CO(2).

Within the context of carbon dioxide (CO2) utilization there is an increasing interest in using CO2 as a resource to produce sustainable liquid hydrocarbon fuels. When these fuels are produced by solely using solar energy they are labeled as solar fuels. In the recent discourse on solar fuels intuitive arguments are used to support the prospects of these fuels.

Life cycle inventory of the production of rare earths and the subsequent production of NdFeB rare earth permanent magnets.

Neodymium is one of the more critical rare earth elements with respect to current availability and is most often used in high performance magnets. In this paper, we compare the virgin production route of these magnets with two hypothetical recycling processes in terms of environmental impact. The first recycling process looks at manual dismantling of computer hard disk drives (HDDs) combined with a novel hydrogen based recycling process.

Multiscale modeling of interaction of alane clusters on Al(111) surfaces: a reactive force field and infrared absorption spectroscopy approach.

We have used reactive force field (ReaxFF) to investigate the mechanism of interaction of alanes on Al(111) surface. Our simulations show that, on the Al(111) surface, alanes oligomerize into larger alanes. In addition, from our simulations, adsorption of atomic hydrogen on Al(111) surface leads to the formation of alanes via H-induced etching of aluminum atoms from the surface.

Parametrization of a reactive force field for aluminum hydride.

A reactive force field, REAXFF, for aluminum hydride has been developed based on density functional theory (DFT) derived data. REAXFF(AlH(3)) is used to study the dynamics governing hydrogen desorption in AlH(3). During the abstraction process of surface molecular hydrogen charge transfer is found to be well described by REAXFF(AlH(3)).

Predictions of melting, crystallization, and local atomic arrangements of aluminum clusters using a reactive force field.

A parametrized reactive force field model for aluminum ReaxFF(Al) has been developed based on density functional theory (DFT) data. A comparison has been made between DFT and ReaxFF(Al) outputs to ascertain whether ReaxFF(Al) is properly parametrized and to check if the output of the latter has correlation with DFT results. Further checks include comparing the equations of state of condensed phases of Al as calculated from DFT and ReaxFF(Al).

Modeling the sorption dynamics of NaH using a reactive force field.

We have parametrized a reactive force field for NaH, ReaxFF(NaH), against a training set of ab initio derived data. To ascertain that ReaxFF(NaH) is properly parametrized, a comparison between ab initio heats of formation of small representative NaH clusters with ReaxFF(NaH) was done. The results and trend of ReaxFF(NaH) are found to be consistent with ab initio values.