Elementary needs

This morning I read an article by the Scientific American editor David Biello on an important topic: the importance of rare earth elements for our economy, and the power of those few countries that export them on a larger scale. (disclaimer: Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group, my employer)

David hits an important point there. But to my mind, the problem is far more critical and fundamental than this single, focussed example suggests, and we need to act on it soon.

Salt production at Salar de Uyuni. This salt flat harbours 50% of the world's lithium reserves. Image by Ricampelo via Wikimedia Commons.

The issue is that rare earth elements such as neodymium are essential to green energy and our economy. Neodymium is part of Nd₂Fe₁₄B, a powerful permanent magnet that is used for electromotors, read heads of hard disk drives, etc. Each wind turbine apparently uses 300 kg of neodymium, each Toyota Prius about 1 kg. At present, China produces 97% of all neodymium.

And this is the problem. China has implemented export controls for its rare earth elements resources. In a recent diplomatic spat with Japan, they temporarily restricted the export of rare earth elements to Japan. But the Chinese should not take all the blame for a little realpolitik. Heard of the 1973 oil crisis?

So let’s not get distracted by politics for now. The problem I am describing is a wider one related to the fact that some elements are rarer than others. There is surely enough sand to make silicon for computers. Other elements, such as the rare earth family, are far less abundant. And often these resources are located in only a few countries. Bolivia has more than 50% of the world’s lithium reserves in the world’s largest salt flat, Salar de Uyuni. Lithium is important as part of lithium-ion batteries that are used also for the increasingly popular electric cars.

There are more examples. Tellurium and indium are used for solar cells, in the form of CdTe and CuInSe₂, respectively. Boosting solar production of both types of solar cells by only a factor of two or three would quickly hit not only the limit of the entire world-wide production capacity, but also deplete all known resources relatively fast.

And even more depressingly, also seemingly mundane elements are in danger of running out. Phosphorus, which is essential to us humans as well as plants (think ADP/ATP), for this reason is widely used as a fertilizer. The main source of phosphorus is from mining, and Morocco holds about a third of all known resources. Some scientists predict that we will run out of phosphorus from mines within the next 50 to 100 years, because at the moment we tend to overfertilize our crops and wash this important resource into the oceans.

All these examples paint a gloomy picture on our use of elements. In many industrial materials and processes we carelessly use valuable resources and scarce elements. We have to recognize that in many cases we are running out of these resources, with dramatic implications to our economy. Unfortunately, the problem is not limited to the examples above. There are more, and we have to identify these weaknesses in our materials use. Research needs to be undertaken to replace devices and materials with alternatives that use more abundant alternatives. In case where there are no alternatives, we need to research them. And if that fails, or is clearly not applicable such in the case of phosphorus, we have to make sure that we use the resources we have most efficiently.