Recycling critical raw materials from waste electronic equipment

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52 Recycling critical raw materials from waste electronic equipment Rare earths are mainly used in the luminescent material in white LEDs. The global demand for some important rare earths, derived from the above projection, is shown in Table 34. Table 34: Estimate of the future demand for rare earths for the manufacture of white LEDs Raw material World production 2010 32 [t] Use in WLEDs [kg] 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 Cerium 40,000 46-96 66-301 90 123-329 169-329 Europium 400 14-29 20 27-99 37-99 50-99 Gadolinium 4,000 347-720 492-2,260 674-2,470 923-2,470 1,260 Yttrium 8,900 739- 1.540 1,050-4,820 5.2 Summary of critical metals in LED lights 1,440- 5,260 1,970- 5,270 2,700- 5,270 The quantity of critical metals used in a typical white LED (the rare earths used in white LEDs are indium and gallium) are listed in Table 35. Figure 25 depicts the percent by weight of the individual elements. It should be noted that the values shown here are provided as an indication only. As white LEDs constitute a new technology with a rapidly changing development status, individual cases which deviate from the values given here may well occur. Table 35: Typical content of critical metals in a white LED Element Weight per LED [�g] Occurrence Indium In 29 Semiconductor chip (100%) Gallium Ga 33 Semiconductor chip (100%) Cerium Ce 2 Luminescent substance doping (100%) Europium Eu 0.4 – 0.9 Luminescent substance doping (100%) Gadolinium Gd 15 Yttrium Y 32 32 BGR 2011, Schüler et al. 2011, Luminescent substance carrier medium (100%) Luminescent substance carrier medium (100%)
Recycling critical raw materials from waste electronic equipment Figure 25: Percent by weight of critical metals in a white LED (semiconductor chip and luminescent material) 5.3 Market data for LED lights The use of lighting based on white LEDs is a relatively new phenomenon in the private sector. It was only the technological advances in the development of high-performance white LEDs with a high luminous efficacy along with good and reliable operating characteristics which enabled these lights to be manufactured on a large scale. The price reductions accompanying this increased their attractiveness, not just in the business-to-business area such as the automotive industry, but also for private consumers. The market responded by developing LED lights with a retrofit design which, instead of conventional incandescent lamps, CFL lights or halogen plug-in lamps, can be used in lamp housings with E27 or E16 connectors. In addition, complete light modules have recently been developed in which the LED, ballast and housing are one integrated unit and exchanging the LED light to reuse the housing is not intended. This latter development has a number of reasons. First, an LED lifespan of up to 50,000 hours is generally significantly longer than the ballast integrated in the housing. Second, by integrating the LED firmly in the housing, the good heat dissipation required for operating the LED can be implemented significantly better as the housing also performs the function of the heat sink. This is not possible to the required extent in a retrofit lamp. This is why the total power of the lights in retrofit models is limited and at the same time the necessary heat sink increases the weight and size of the light, thus limiting the application possibilities. However, 53
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