Some of the R3AW team have co-authored a commentary paper on the potential re-emerging environmental risks of vanadium. The work, with colleagues at CEH Edinburgh, University of Edinburgh, Nottingham Trent University, UCL and Craigencalt Rural Community Trust, highlights increasing global use and emerging markets for vanadium. Knowledge gaps surrounding environmental behaviour are highlighted alongside the need for improved monitoring and management. The full text can be found here.
Bauxite residue is a high volume, alkaline waste produced by the alumina industry. Sustainable management strategies for waste depositories are imperative to prevent environmental risk and to rehabilitate the land. Our latest paper in the leading journal Environmental Science and Technology shows how simple amendment of the alkaline, saline metal-rich residue with a layer of sand, organic matter and appropriate plant seeds can lead to a sustained healthy chemical environment for vegetation communities to thrive nearly 2 decades after initial treatment. The effectiveness of the surface amendment extends well below surface layers and provides conditions for resilient biological communities to develop, which adjust pH, lower salinity and lower mobility of potentially problematic metals. The work shows that simple, low-cost interventions can have lasting effects and minimise the environmental risks of this globally important waste, as well as returning waste sites to rehabilitated, functioning ecosystems.
The link to the paper can be found here and will soon be available open access.
The successful implementation of ideas, frameworks and technologies for resource recovery from waste will require the formulation of strong business cases for a variety of actors in industry and government. What are the key elements of business cases for these actors? How can business cases integrate environmental and social as well as technical and economic costs and benefits? What do business cases for resource recovery look like, what can we learn from successful examples?
This year’s conference aims to present both conceptual ideas and practical experiences on the formulation of business cases for resource recovery as part of the circular economy.
Keynote Talks
Converting waste CO2 to valuable chemical compounds: Another way of CO2 recycling. Shahid Rasul, Newcastle University.
Adding Value to Ash and Digestate (AVAnD): From the Glasshouse to the Field, Technical Challenges and Commercial Opportunities. Rachel Marshall and Alfonso Jose Lag-Brotons, Lancaster University.
Carbon pricing for the circular economy. David Newman, BBIA.
II. Recovering materials from mine legacy landfills
Metal recovery and recycling by urban mining. Jason Love, University of Edinburgh.
Metal-mine waste bioleaching and selective precipitation of target metals. Carmen Falagan Bangor University.
Challenges and Potential Solutions in Resource Recovery from Mine and Industrial Wastes. Devin Sapsford, Cardiff University.
III. New sustainability assessments and models
Catalytic upgrading of heavy and pyrolysis oils: how Life Cycle Analysis can be affected comparing fossil and renewable resources? Sophie Archer and Lynne Macaskie, University of Birmingham
Decision-making and business model innovation for sustainability. Suzana Matoh, University of Leeds
Developing a conceptual framework for complex value assessment of resources recovered from waste using non-standard economics. Oliver Zwirner, University of Leeds
Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis (LCSA) of Resource Recovery from Waste (RRfW) Systems. Jhuma Sadhukhan, University of Surrey
All attendees are required to register for the event by the 31st October. Authors are requested to pay the reduced rate to attend and present their work.
Full delegate rate: £125
Reduced rate: £100
The conference will be held at the Cloth Hall Court, Quebec Street, Leeds, LS1 2HA. The venue is just five minutes walk from Leeds rail station, in the city centre. Further details, including a map and list of nearby hotels can be found on our conference webpage.
We would like to invite you to the workshop “How can policy and regulation support resource recovery from waste?” on 21st September 2017 in Durham, Kenworthy Hall at St Marys College. This workshop is organised as part of a collaborative mini-project by the Resource Recovery from Waste programme and associated researchers of the AVAnD, B3, MeteoRR and R3AW projects.
This is a one day workshop on Vanadium recovery from steel slag landfills.
At this workshop, you will gain insight into the Resource Recovery from Waste programme and the technologies developed within our projects. You will get the opportunity to share best practice in policies and regulations that enable resource recovery, while also highlighting any barriers that may exist. We will use the project findings in our work striving for positive change in government policy supporting a circular economy in the UK.
This is one of four workshops across the country. Each workshop strives to answer the question: “If we wanted to realise resource recovery in the UK, how would it be possible within our policy and regulatory context?”. We will ask for your knowledge and experience to carry out a policy analysis, identifying drivers and barriers for resource recovery in general and for specific technologies, and identify which actors could drive required changes in the policy and regulation landscape
Understanding how change in the governance of waste and resource management can be achieved is vital to promote resource recovery and increaser resource efficiency as part of the transition towards the circular economy. Based on this research, we will formulate policy recommendations for governmental bodies throughout the UK.Each workshop strives to answer the question: “If we wanted to realise resource recovery in the UK, how would it be possible within our policy and regulatory context?” We will ask for your knowledge and experience to carry out a policy analysis, identifying drivers and barriers for resource recovery in general and for specific technologies, and identify which actors could drive required changes in the policy and regulation landscape.
This workshop aims to bring together people from academia, government, and industry. Please contact Anne Velenturf A.Velenturf@leeds.ac.uk to register for the workshop. Workshop spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.
The next 14th July 2017, the School of Environmental Sciences of the University of Hull will host the CIWM North East Centre & IOSH Environmental & Waste Management Group Joint Open Meeting.
Professor Dan Parsons from the Institute of Energy and the Environment will welcome the participants and Dr Pauline Deutz will present a talk “Circular economy and resource security: recovering metals from legacy Wastes“.
This event is free of charge
Contact: Gail Gray, MCIWM
gail.gray@environment-agency.gov.uk
Detailed information can be found here.
By Anne Velenturf, Pauline Deutz and Andrea Cecchin
The International Sustainable Development Research Society (ISDRS) held a very successful annual conference last week in Bogotá, Colombia. With over 200 presentations from every corner of the world and 9 key notes plus a welcome by the President of Colombia and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Juan Manuel Santos, the conference reflected the diversity and crucial role of the UN Sustainable Development Goals for environmental health, peace keeping and the circular economy.
The circular economy continues to be a popular topic for ISDRS. A special track on Circular Economy, Industrial Ecology (resource management and sustainable regional economic development) included 12 presentations on this subject. Additionally, other sessions contained 5 presentations on circular economy while there were a further 15 talks on waste and resource management and/or sustainable production and consumption.
The fact that the circular economy and sustainable waste and resource management resonated throughout the ISDRS conference should not be a surprise. Analysis of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) show that 12 of the 17 goals contain targets to improve waste and resource management directly, excluding targets on for example education, policy and finance which can indirectly enhance sustainable waste and resource management. The global goals on affordable and clean energy, clean water and sanitation, and life below water and on land contain the highest proportions of targets aiming to alter waste and resource flows in our economy. Overall the UN SDGs propose far-reaching changes for industry.
This emphasises the importance of circular economy and industrial ecology for sustainable development. Presentations at the ISDRS conference indicated, however, that circularity cannot be a dogma because it might not be the best strategy for achieving resource efficiency or sustainability at all times. Instead, we need to consider circular economy in the broader perspective of sustainable development.
Circular economy presentations at the ISDRS included both developing and developed country perspectives. In both cases the construction industry is an area of concern, given the scale of waste produced, but especially noting the continuing rate of urbanisation in developing countries such as Colombia. Additionally, in the context of developing countries the informal economy tends to play a significant role (both in waste management and construction).
Other talks indicated that there is a need to develop approaches fostering circular practices, such as industrial symbiosis, which reach beyond large companies. Context needs to be considered in industrial symbiosis evolution, with different pathways illustrated for urban and rural settings. Pathways are also likely to differ in developed and developing countries due to different socioeconomic and political conditions.
Such differences highlight the need for a flexible framework and specific implementation strategies for developed and developing countries. A common framework for circular economy does not exist yet, not least since various current frameworks propose different visions of sustainability. These differences are also reflected in the confusing range of terms used in circular economy discourse, as precise terminology is yet to be established.
Image source: Denise Reike, Walter Vermeulen and Sjors Witjes (2017) The circular economy: New or Refurbished as CE 3.0? – Exploring Controversies in the Conceptualisation of the Circular Economy through a Focus on History and Resource Retention Options. Presentation at ISRDS 14-16 June Bogotá, Colombia http://programme.exordo.com/isdrs2017/delegates/presentation/320/
Engagement with policy makers is also important to steer both the design and implementation of regulations, as was illustrated by case studies from tyre recycling and mining of legacy waste. A further presentation emphasised policy makers can be receptive to academic engagement, with an on-going two-way process of exchange the ideal way to manage this.
A lively discussion after the talks summarised suggestions for further circular economy and industrial ecology research:
We look forward to contributions to continue the debate at next year’s conference, which will be hosted by the University of Messina, Italy, 13-15 June 2018.
Anne Velenturf is the coordinator of the Resource Recovery from Waste programme at the University of Leeds and managing director of 4Innovation Research and Consultancy. Pauline Deutz is a Reader at the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Hull and vice president of the International Sustainable Development Research Society. Andrea Cecchin is a Fellow at the Archives of Sustainability at Ca’Foscari University of Venice and Project Researcher at Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador.
Our latest paper on the leaching of vanadium from steel slag is published open access in Environmental Science and Technology this month.
Vanadium is a potential aquatic pollutant that can be released when steel slags are weathered, either during disposal or in conditioning of the material so it can be re-used as aggregate. Our study aimed to improve our understanding of how vanadium is released from slags into the surrounding environment using a range of geochemical techniques.
We found that vanadium is more readily released under aerobic conditions and that its release to water is controlled by calcium vanadate mineral phases. We also observed significant accumulation of newly-formed calcium silicate hydrate (C-S-H) phases in a rind around the surface of slag that is weathered. These surface minerals are also important in taking up some vanadium from solution.
An understanding of these weathering processes helps give us greater insight into the potential environmental risks of slag processing and re-use. The observed leaching and precipitation processes on the surface of the slag have positive implications for slag after-uses (e.g. as an aggregate). The presence of a surface rind may limit (or significantly slow) further dissolution, preventing significant alkalinity generation or the release of metals to the environment.
Written by Dr William Mayes (R3AW) University of Hull
A new paper entitled “Hydraulic and biotic impacts on neutralisation of high-pH waters“ has just been published online and in open access on the journal Science of the Total Environment. This paper is available here.
Our research showed that cascades lower pH and alkalinity more successfully than ponds, and that configuration should be adopted, if possible, in the passive treatment of high-pH waters.
We could also observe that biofilms promote neutralisation due to CO2 from respiration. In fact, photosynthesis and respiration in biofilms induce a diurnal effect at high pH. The pH variation in biofilm colonized systems shows a diurnal cycle of 1 to 1.5 pH units due to CO2 uptake and release associated with respiration and photosynthesis. However, the hydraulic configuration has more influence on neutralisation of alkaline waters than biofilm.
The management of alkaline (pH 11-12.5) leachate is an important issue associated with the conditioning, afteruse or disposal of steel slags (an important by-product of the steel industry). Passive in-gassing of atmospheric CO2 is a low cost option for reducing alkalinity, producing calcium carbonate.
View of the biofilm colonized systems used in the experiments
A new research project with Dr Phil Renforth (Cardiff University) has been highlighted in The Guardian. You can read the full article here.
This new three-year project, which has just been awarded a £300,000 grant by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), aims to to test the feasibility of using iron and steel slag deposits to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and it is set to begin in Consett, County Durham, and Port Talbot, south Wales.
During the process of steel-making, iron ore is mixed with limestone or dolomite and heated to extremely high temperatures. The end results are steel and slag, a waste mixture of calcium and magnesium silicates and oxides. Piles of this ore-processing leftover have been dumped around the countryside over several centuries.
“Often these heaps have been landscaped very nicely,” said Renforth, who has worked on the project with Will Mayes of Hull University. “There is one in Consett that has been turned into lovely parkland where people can walk their dogs. They are all round the country. Wherever we have made iron, we have left a pile of slag.”
Earlier research by Renforth has shown that carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is absorbed by material inside slag heaps. “We now want to see if we can improve the rate of this absorption so that can we make significant reductions in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide in the future,” added Renforth.
To do this, Renforth’s project will proceed in two stages. “First, we will drill into one of these old, historic slag heaps and see what has been happening there over the years and understand what chemical processes have been going on as rainwater has brought carbon dioxide into the heap.
“And then we will start the second stage. We will create our own mini-heap – about the size of a skip – and play with its chemistry to try to optimise its ability to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.” These slag-based carbon sequestrators could then be used as models of larger devices that could reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere, Renforth added.
The UK produces 3-4m tonnes of slag a year while the total global production is estimated as being about 500m tonnes a year at present. However, this rate could increase as developing nations catch up, added Renforth. “Our calculations suggest that we might produce between 100bn and 200bn tonnes of slag cumulatively by the end of this century,” added Renforth. “That has the potential to remove 50-100bn tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere, we believe.”
Alkaline Remediation 