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A REVIEW OF LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT STUDIES OF RARE EARTH ELEMENTS INDUSTRY

Karolina Kossakowska, PhD Katarzyna Grzesik

Abstract

Rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of 17 elements including scandium, yttrium and 15 lanthanides. There are a number of applications for the REE in different industries, e.g. super magnets in electrical engines in vehicles and generators in wind turbines, fluorescent lights, catalysts for the automotive end petroleum industry. REEs are crucial concerning the rapidly developing clean energy applications and with the highest risk of supply. To meet the future demand, it is necessary to develop efficient, economically feasible and environmentally friendly technologies for REE production. The possible sources of REE include: primary sources, recycling from endпїЅofпїЅlife products, use of tailings and by-products from mining activities. New application possibilities concerning postпїЅmining materials are presently investigated within ENVIREE project (environmentally friendly and efficient methods for extraction of rare earth elements (REE) from secondary sources). European primary and secondary sources together may provide a reliable, sustainable and sufficient supply for the local industries. Obtaining and processing of REE-bearing materials may have serious environmental impacts. Therefore, identifying and reducing adverse influence of REE production on environment is essential. Although life cycle assessment (LCA) is considered to be comprehensive approach to quantify the environmental sustainability of a product or process, there have been only very limited LCA studies on the production of REEs. This paper reviews the published LCA studies on REE industry. Currently published literature focuses mainly on LCA studies of primary sources of rare earths, e.g. Mountain Pass in U.S., Bayan Obo in China. A significant knowledge gap is identified, e.g. regarding REE production with use of secondary sources. Further research is suggested to provide holistic insight on environmental impacts of REE industry from life cycle perspective.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/52/s20.003

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