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4 ( i )
3
-
2
1 (lo
)
1 (lo
)
2
3
4 ( i )
-
-
x
Fig. 1.8 Medium-term criticality matrix (DOE, 2011)
other new applications. The 2010 supply was 1,400 tonnes. Magnesium demand
meanwhile could increase the trend of vehicle lightweighting (Sec. A.2) albeit that
plastic and new lightweight materials like carbon fibre can also be used as an alter-
native. Finally high grade vanadium is used in the electrolyte of vanadium redox
batteries and could provide a good solution for grid storage applications. In fact,
the weight of the battery cost is due to the need of high purity vanadium.
With similar concerns, the American Physical Society and the Materials Re-
search Society, presented their joint 2010 report on “Energy Critical Elements” and
discussed the need to develop new advanced energy technologies (Jaffe et al., 2012).
To the above identified critical raw materials, the report adds platinum as a catalyst
for hydrogen fuel cells, PGMs and cerium as catalytic converters, rhenium as an
essential element for special alloys in turbine technology, and helium-4 for its use
in cryogenics, welding, nuclear coolant and many other applications.
Similarly, an additional investigation published by Pickard (2008) showed that in
a scenario of conventional use, the availability of ruthenium, rhodium, palladium,
tellurium, rhenium, osmium, iridium, platinum, gold and especially phosphorous
is questionable in the near future, while the supply of helium, chromium, nickel,
copper, zinc, molybdenum, silver, cadmium, tin, antimony, tungsten, mercury, lead
and bismuth will be problematic. Many rare precious metals will have a strong
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