The fundamental limits of recycling : from minerals processing to computer aided design of automobiles and other consumer goods

[摘要] My applied engineering research and industrial application work of the past 20 years ispresented in this dissertation. It is the conjecture of my work that only if thorough firstprinciples knowledge of the depth of process metallurgy and recycling is available, canmeaningful first principles environmental models be developed. These models can thenevaluate technology, provide well argued and first principles environmental informationto our tax paying consumer society as well as to legislators and environmentalists. Onlythrough this path can one estimate the limits of recycling and its technology, henceevaluate the true boundaries of sustainability.My work with students has presently culminated in the detailed modelling and simulationof recycling systems for post-consumer goods. Notably the models are finding anapplication in the prediction of legally required recycling rates for automobiles. Themodels provide first principles arguments for less stringent EU recycling legislation andthe integration of the first principles models in computer aided design tools of theautomotive industry as part of a large EU 6th Framework (project managed byVolkswagen and the other European car producers). Presently these models are alsobeing converted to model the Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) as wellas water recycling systems respectively, both for industry in The Netherlands.This unique rigorous integration of systems engineering, reactor technology and processcontrol theory is the basis of all my work to describe recycling systems as dynamicfeedback control loops. My large body of acquired industrial knowledge renders thesemodels practical and can hence be used by the automotive and recycling industries.The origins of this work may be found in the various cited publications and reports toindustry by myself (due to my close association with industry as well as industrialexperience) over the past 20 years as well as the work of my students, covering topicssuch as:• system optimization models for flotation, mineral beneficiation and recyclingsystems and applying these for design for recycling and argue for better/improvedfirst-principles based legislation,• industrial measurement, modelling and simulation of industrial extractive processpyrometallurgical reactors as well waste incinerators and recycling plants,• various activities in other areas such as hydrometallurgy, clean and newbreakthrough technology, and• process control of industrial metallurgical reactors by among others the applicationof artificial intelligence techniques.All the ideas of the last years have been worked out with students and have beensummarized in our book: 'The Metrics of Material and Metal Ecology, Harmonizing theresource, technology and environmental cycles.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University