Critical Materials

Critical Materials takes a case-study approach, describing materials supply-chain failures from the bronze age to present day. It looks at why these failures occurred, what the consequences were, and how they were resolved. It identifies key lessons to guide responses to current and anticipated materials shortages at a time when the world's growing middle class is creating unprecedented demand for manufactured products and the increasingly exotic materials that go into them. This book serves as a guide to materials researchers and industrial end-users for finding effective approaches to shortages of specialty materials. The lessons in the book are also appropriate to those who use materials and for those involved in manufacturing supply-chain management and industrial design. Instructs the reader on how to select the most effective strategies to deal with materials supply-chain failures Discusses technical feasibility, economic viability and the political context Includes an extensive use of case studies to illustrate key concepts of criticality

This report examines the role of rare earth metals and other materials in the clean energy economy. It was prepared by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) based on data collected and research performed during 2010. In the report, DoE describes plans to: (1) develop its first integrated research agenda addressing critical materials, building on three technical workshops convened by the DoE during November and December 2010; (2) strengthen its capacity for information-gathering on this topic; and (3) work closely with international partners, including Japan and Europe, to reduce vulnerability to supply disruptions and address critical material needs. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.

"The United States economy, and especially its manufacturing sector, is dependent on the supply of raw and semi-finished materials used to make products. While the United States has extensive mineral resources and is a leading global materials producer, a high percentage of many materials critical to U.S. manufacturing are imported, sometimes from a country that has the dominant share of a material's global production and export. This report specifically identifies 14 critical materials for which production is concentrated in countries with weak governance, as indicated by the World Governance Indicators published by the World Bank. China is the controlling producer of 11 of these critical raw materials, nine of which have been identified as having high economic importance and high supply risk. As its market share and domestic consumption of critical materials has grown, China has instituted production controls, export restrictions, mine closings, and company consolidations that have led to two-tier pricing, which creates pressure to move manufacturing to China and contributes to strong price increases for these materials on the world market. To mitigate the impact of these market distortions on the global manufacturing sector, this report suggests the need for actions that (1) increase resiliency to supply disruptions or market distortions and (2) provide early warning of developing problems concerning the concentration of production."--Page 4 of cover.

Contains Committee Report.

This book covers a new frontier of research in Critical Materials that provides insight in terms of the possible sustainable mitigation strategies, the complexity, broadness and multi-disciplinarity of the subject. By exploring in both 'systems view' and 'in-depth materials view' in light of the circular economy, this book tackles the problem of sustainable usage of materials that is closely intertwined with the energy issue and climate change. Topics covered include: geopolitics of materials, the energy-materials nexus, definitions of the criticality of materials, circular product design, the development of alternative materials (substitution), sustainable mining and recycling.

Critical Materials Problems in Energy Production discusses the most challenging of the materials problems in the areas of production, distribution, and energy storage. This book is a result of the Distinguished Lecture Series on “Critical Materials Problems in Energy Production sponsored by the Joint Center for Materials Science in New Mexico. This text is organized into eight sections encompassing 29 chapters that cover topics on nuclear power, materials for high-temperature applications, solar energy, direct solar conversion, coal and other fossil fuels, superconducting materials, and energy storage devices. After a brief introduction to overall perspective of the energy program, the book goes on discussing the problems encountered in nuclear power generation, including the complication of their interdependence, the severity of the service parameters, and the need for safety and reliability. Section II examines the progress made in the development of high-temperature materials suitable for use in magnetohydrodynamic converts and advanced turbines and jet engines. The subsequent two sections address the thermal/optical requirements for solar utilization devices and the limitations encountered in solar cell materials. Section V deals with the metallurgical problems emanating from the materials used for confinement and the flow of energy in steam generating systems. This section also describes the close dependence of catalytic performance on technological innovations in the field of materials science. Section VI discusses the basics of superconductivity phenomena. Section VII deals with the materials problems related to the development of more efficient batteries. Discussions on new electrode materials, solid electrolytes, and high-temperature battery systems are included in this section. The concluding section provides supplemental texts containing references and readings.

Much attention has been focused on U.S. dependency on imports for supplies of strategic minerals and materials. There is alarm about the extent of that dependency and about the possibility that U.S. economic, political, and strategic decisions might be unduly influenced by arbitrary actions of foreign suppliers. In addition, there is concern that t