Chemie Ingenieur Technik, Vol.90, No.11, 1647-1657, 2018
Future Securing of the Raw Materials Base
The growth in human population results in an increasing demand for raw materials. Recycling is a way to reduce primary raw materials demand, but growing dilution of technology metals in consumer products and continuous shortening of life cycles lead to an increasing demand for such primary raw materials. In addition, the quality of secondary raw materials is lower compared to primary mining products. However, in circular resources chemistry, the raw materials are processed independent from their source, i.e., it does not matter if they come from mining, recycling or renewable resources, and they always have primary product quality.