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A period 4 element is one of the chemical elements in the fourth row of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring (periodic) trends in the chemical behaviour of the elements as their atomic number increases: a new row is begun when chemical behaviour begins to repeat, meaning that elements with similar behaviour fall into the same vertical columns. The fourth period contains 18 elements beginning with potassium and ending with krypton – one element for each of the eighteen groups. It sees the first appearance of d-block in the table.
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Natural resource economics deals with the supply, demand, and allocation of the Earth's natural resources. One main objective of natural resource economics is to better understand the role of natural resources in the economy in order to develop more sustainable methods of managing those resources to ensure their availability for future generations. Resource economists study interactions between economic and natural systems, with the goal of developing a sustainable and efficient economy.
Environmental impact of mining can occur at local, regional, and global scales through direct and indirect mining practices. Mining can cause erosion, sinkholes, loss of biodiversity, or the contamination of soil, groundwater, and surface water by chemicals emitted from mining processes. These processes also affect the atmosphere through carbon emissions which contributes to climate change.
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Michael Nathan Silver is a business executive, philanthropist, art collector, and commentator. He is the founder and CEO of American Elements, a global high-technology materials manufacturer. He helped establish the post-Cold War rare earth supply chain from China to the U.S. and Europe. His philanthropy includes sponsoring materials science and green technology conferences and educational television programs on high technology and contributing funding to the arts. He served as a trustee of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and serves on the directors council of the Getty Museum and on the board of directors of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, CA. He writes and speaks on science education and Sino-American relations.
Material criticality is the determination of which materials that flow through an industry or economy are most important to the production process. It is a sub-category within the field of material flow analysis (MFA), which is a method to quantitatively analyze the flows of materials used for industrial production in an industry or economy. MFA is a useful tool to assess what impacts materials used in the industrial process have and how efficiently a given process uses them.
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Since 2011 the European Commission has assessed every 3 years a list of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) for the EU economy within its Raw Materials Initiative. To date, 14 CRMs were identified in 2011, 20 in 2014, 27 in 2017 and 30 in 2020. These materials are mainly used in energy transition and digital technologies. Then in March 2023 Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed the Critical Raw Materials Act, "for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the European Council establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials". At the time, Europe depended on China for 98% of its rare-earth needs, 97% of its lithium supply and 93% of its magnesium supply.
Usage of electric cars damages people’s health and the environment less than similar sized internal combustion engine cars. While aspects of their production can induce similar, less or different environmental impacts, they produce little or no tailpipe emissions, and reduce dependence on petroleum, greenhouse gas emissions, and deaths from air pollution. Electric motors are significantly more efficient than internal combustion engines and thus, even accounting for typical power plant efficiencies and distribution losses, less energy is required to operate an electric vehicle. Manufacturing batteries for electric cars requires additional resources and energy, so they may have a larger environmental footprint in the production phase. Electric vehicles also generate different impacts in their operation and maintenance. Electric vehicles are typically heavier and could produce more tire and road dust air pollution, but their regenerative braking could reduce such particulate pollution from brakes. Electric vehicles are mechanically simpler, which reduces the use and disposal of engine oil.
The electric vehicle supply chain comprises the mining and refining of raw materials and the manufacturing processes that produce batteries and other components for electric vehicles.
Governments designate critical raw materials (CRM) as critical for their economies so there is no single list of such raw materials as the list varies from country to country as does the definition of critical. They include technology-critical elements, rare-earth elements and strategic materials.
References
- 1 2 3 U.S. Department of Energy. Critical Materials Strategy. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Energy.
- ↑ "Technology Critical Elements and their Relevance to the Global Environment Facility" (PDF). Retrieved 10 July 2022.
- ↑ 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.
- 1 2 3 APS (American Physical Society) and MRS (The Materials Research Society) (2011). Energy Critical Elements: Securing Materials for Emerging Technologies (PDF). Washington, D.C.: APS.
- 1 2 European Commission (2010). Critical Raw Materials for the EU. Report of the Ad-hoc Working Group on Defining Critical Raw Materials.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Gunn, G. (2014). Critical Metals Handbook. Wiley.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Parthemore, C. (2011). Elements of Security. Mitigating the Risks of U.S. Dependence on Critical Minerals. Center for New America Security.
- ↑ Turner, Roger (21 June 2019). "A Strategic Approach to Rare-Earth Elements as Global Trade Tensions Flare". www.greentechmedia.com.
- 1 2 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. - ↑ "New life cycle assessment study shows useful life of tech-critical metals to be short". University of Bayreuth. Retrieved 23 June 2022.
- ↑ 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.
- 1 2 Ali, S.; Katima, J. (2020). Technology Critical Elements and the GEF, A STAP Advisory Document. Washington, DC.: Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel to the Global Environment Facility.
- 1 2 Ali, S.; Katima, J. (2020). Technology Critical Elements and their Relevance to the Global Environment Facility. Washington, DC.: Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel to the Global Environment Facility.
