Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy: Volume 1 : Origins, basics, resource and energy needs 9782759824434, 9782759821983

Citation preview

Sustainable Materials Science Environmental Metallurgy Volume 1 Origins, basics, resources & energy needs

Sustainable Materials Science Environmental Metallurgy Volume 1 Origins, basics, resources & energy needs

If further generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it. Lyndon Baines Johnson

Printed in France. © 2020, EDP Sciences, 17, avenue du Hoggar, BP 112, Parc d’activites de Courtaboeuf, 91944 Les Ulis Cedex A, France This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broad-casting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data bank. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is only permitted under the provisions of the French Copyright law of March 11, 1957. Violations fall under the prosecution act of the French Copyright law. ISBN (print): 978-2-7598-2198-3 – ISBN (ebook): 978-2-7598-2443-4

Table of contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

XI

Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XV CChapteChapt Introduction: Man and Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1. Connection between man and nature: demography and economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2. The connection between Man and Nature in various cultures and religions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 3. The “Ecological Footprint” of the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 4. The planet as a series of “spheres”, an ecological categorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 5. The concept of Sustainable Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 6. Sustainable Development and the spheres model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 7. Sustainability and sciences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 8. Organization of the book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 9. Conclusions of chapter 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 10. Other itineraries to explore this book. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Appendix 1. GDP evolution over historical time scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Appendix 2. Mandate of the Brundtland commission (UN, December 1983) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 11. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 11.1. Journals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 11.2. Books, reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 11.3. Websites, blogs, etc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 11.4. Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 12. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

VI

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

CChapteChapt Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Sciencerelevant to Sustainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 2. Metals in the vernacular language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 3. Metals as chemical elements and substances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 4. The nature of Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 5. Metals and especially Iron in the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 6. Metals, Iron and Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 7. A metallurgical narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 7.1. Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 7.2. Materials production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 7.3. Material properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 7.4. Utilization of steel in manufacturing and life cycle of steel. . . . . . 62 7.5. Making, shaping & forming technologies – material concepts used outside of the steel sector and in neighboring ones . . . . . . . . 63 7.6. Steel grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 7.7. Innovation in steel metallurgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 7.8. Innovation in steel metallurgy driven by Materials Science . . . . . 78 8. Conclusions of chapter 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Appendix 1. Iron in 100 languages (generated by Google Translate) . . . 82 Appendix 2. Etymology of the words iron and steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Appendix 3. Dictionary and encyclopedia definitions of metals . . . . . . . 83 Appendix 4. Iron in the universe, on earth and in the crust . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Appendix 5. Transferrin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Appendix 6. Steels for automotive applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 9. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

CChapteChapt Materials and tools, a historical perspective from prehistorical times until the present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 2. Society and Materials: how it all started, a few million years ago . . 102 2.1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 2.2. Prolegomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 2.3. Materials (and tools). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 2.4. (Tools and) materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 2.5. Anthropoids and Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 2.6. Conclusions to section 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 3. History of metal technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 3.1. Reminder of the previous section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 3.2. Early metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 3.3. Historical Metallurgy – Prereduced iron and Cemented Steel . . . . 134

Table of contents

VII

3.4. 3.5.

Historical metallurgy – Pig Iron and Blast Furnaces . . . . . . . . . 139 Historical metallurgy: modern steelmaking, Bessemer, Thomas, Martin & Héroult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 3.6. The Steel Industry of the 20th & 21st century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 3.7. Production technologies of non-ferrous metals and other materials 153 4. Innovation drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 4.1. Innovation drivers in metal industries in the 20th and 21st centuries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 4.2. The innovation driver narrative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 5. Conclusions of chapter 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 6. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166 Appendix 1. Historical matrix of tool and technique evolution across Prehistory (according to ALG, R&M) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 7. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 8. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

CChapteChapt Materials comparison: competition or cooperation?. 173 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 2. Roles of materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 3. Methodological caveats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 4. Materials 101: a simple introduction to materials properties . . . . . 181 4.1. Metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182 4.2. Ceramics, cement and glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 4.3. Plastics and polymers, elastomers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 4.4. Wood and timber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 4.5. Summary of “Materials 101” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 5. Iron and Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 5.1. Steel production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 5.2. Energy consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192 5.3. CO2 emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 5.4. Conclusions on steel as a material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 6. Aluminum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 6.1. Aluminum production. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 6.2. Aluminum energy demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 6.3. Aluminum greenhouse gas emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202 6.4. Conclusions on aluminum as a material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 7. Cement and concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 7.1. Cement production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 7.2. Energy consumption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 7.3. CO2 emissions of cement production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 7.4. Conclusions on cement as a material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 8. Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 9. Polymers and plastics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

VIII

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

10. Wood and timber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 11. Comparison between materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 12. Conclusions of chapter 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 13. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Appendix 1. Example of a design selection diagram of F. Ashby . . . . . . . 224 14. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

CChapteChapt Corrosion and oxidation of materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 2. Corrosion of metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 3. Corrosion of Polymers and Elastomers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 4. Corrosion of Concrete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 5. Corrosion of Ceramics and Glass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 6. Corrosion of Paper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 7. The cost of Corrosion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241 8. Anticorrosion technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 9. Conclusions of chapter 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242 10. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

CChapteChapt Process Engineeringfrom the standpoint of Environmental Metallurgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 2. Metallurgical reactors and reactor modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 2.1. Typology of metallurgical reactors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 2.2. Mass and energy balance models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 2.3. Calculation of high-temperature equilibria and distance to equilibrium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 2.4. Fluid dynamics in liquid phase reactors, Computational Fluid Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264 3. Emissions from industry and metal processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 4. Environmental process modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 5. Solid and particulate emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270 6. Organic emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 7. Holistic process route modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 8. Conclusions of chapter 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Appendix 1. Equipment manufacturers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 Appendix 2. Flowsheets of various steel mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282 Appendix 3. Abatement technologies for air emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284 Appendix 4. Vapor Pressure of metals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 9. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288 10. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Table of contents

IX

CChapteChapt Resources, materials and primary raw materials . . . 295 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298 2. Basics of Mining Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303 2.1. Metallogeny, metallogenesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304 2.2. Carrier metals and others. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308 2.3. Mining reserves and resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310 2.4. Analysis of element and mineral scarcity: a definition of criticality. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314 2.5. The Hotelling rule and the price of renewable and non-renewable resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321 2.6. Domestic Materials Consumption (DMC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322 3. Status of primary raw materials: example of the Steel sector . . . . . 324 3.1. Mines in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326 3.2. Steel companies integrating vertically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327 3.3. Is ore quality changing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329 3.4. Alloying elements used by the steel sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331 3.5. Other resources used by the steel sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 3.6. Logistics and scarcity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 4. Raw materials beyond the Steel sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332 5. Conclusions to Chapter 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333 Appendix 1. Element and substance cycles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334 Appendix 2. The 40 top mining companies in the world (2015) . . . . . . . 339 Appendix 3. Status of the main alloying elements used in metallurgy in terms of supply risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340 6. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341 7. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

CChapteChapt Materials, Secondary Raw Materials  and the Circular Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 2. Critical analysis of the Circular Economy communication . . . . . . . 355 3. Recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 4. Recycling of goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359 5. Recycling of residues, by-products, co-products or waste . . . . . . . . 360 6. Recycling of materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361 7. Recycling of minor materials, multiple and indefinite recycling, downcycling, co-recycling, extended life-in-use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 8. Urban or Anthropogenic Mines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 9. Recycling of minerals and of residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370 10. Recycling of molecules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 11. Recycling & LCA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373 12. Recycling & MFA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

X

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

13. Benefits and limitations of recycling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 14. Rebound effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382 15. Conclusions of chapter 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383 16. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384 Appendix 1. Circular economy, EU policy development: viewpoints and nuances from a materials stakeholder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385 17. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387 18. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

CChapteChapt Materials and Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 Abstract . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 2. The emergence of the concept of energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394 3. What can physics tell us about energy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397 4. Energy resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408 5. Steel and energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414 5.1. The Steel industry is energy intensive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414 5.2. The “model” integrated steel mill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416 5.3. EAF and DRI-based steel mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418 5.4. Energy intensity of actual steel mills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420 5.5. Energy efficiency, how far? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421 5.6. Exergy analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424 5.7. The energy transition, what is it about? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426 6. The Ecology Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428 7. CO2 mitigation, how much, when and how? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429 8. Renewables and materials production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429 9. Conclusions of chapter 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431 Appendix 1. Energy in the languages of the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433 Appendix 2. Historical milestones in the construction of the energy concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433 Appendix 3. Conventions in the International system of units. . . . . . . . . 438 Appendix 4. Additive Manufacturing (AM) and other production models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439 10. Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 10.1. Websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442 10.2. Legislative and other official documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 10.3. Journals and journal articles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 10.4. Books and reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443 11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Glossary – Acronyms and abbreviations. . . . . . . . . 447 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Foreword

In an e-mail about half a year ago, Jean-Pierre in between other things said and I quote: “I have spent the last year, during my free time, writing a book on materials sustainability, meant to be a textbook. It corresponds to what I have been teaching at USTB [University of Science and Technology, Beijing] every summer, lately.” My first reaction was “Free time? - When does he sleep?” This reaction relates to knowing Jean-Pierre’s work for several decades, and for the last twenty years, I have also had the pleasure of knowing him personally both as a colleague and as a friend. Like Jean-Pierre, I was borne in the first half of the last century. I have mainly worked as a researcher and teacher in Material Science, in particular Extractive or Process Metallurgy, and as the years have passed, my interests have developed towards the inclusion of environmental issues in these activities. Being a university professor naturally requires that I teach several courses each year, and my favourite is “TMT 4330 Resources, Energy and Environment” which incidentally is the name of my research group at Department of Material Science and Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Jean-Pierre Birat was born in France in 1947. He has an Engineering background with graduate studies in metallurgy and materials science at École des Mines in Paris and at the University of California at Berkeley. He has since worked mainly with the French Steel research, i.e. at IRSID, now ArcelorMittal Research, but also at Nippon Steel, Hiyoshi, Japan. After retiring from ArcelorMittal, he was the secretary general of ESTEP, the European Steel Technology Platform in Brussels. He is an honorary professor at USTB, in Beijing. He now runs a consultancy, IF Steelman, where paper and book writing, teaching as well as participation in conferences and various committees are the main matters. Jean-Pierre has worked in Solidification, Continuous Casting, Steelmaking, Electric Arc Furnace Steelmaking, environmental issues related to steel production and use, societal dimensions of metals and materials related in particular to the Circular Economy and to LCA/MFA/SAT methodologies. He was in charge of various research groups and departments and was finally a world expert for ArcelorMittal, while running several other things. He was the director of the two largest international research programs on low-carbon-intensity steel

XII

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

production: “CO2 breakthrough technologies”, Worldsteel and “ULCOS - Ultra Low CO2 Steel technology”. He also founded the “SAM - Society & Materials” conferences and the SOVAMAT [SOcietal VAlue of MATerials] initiative and is chairing its scientific committee. In 2018, SAM12 takes place in Metz, Jean-Pierre’s Hometown. He has authored more than 500 papers, conference presentations and Keynote lectures, in a research context where grey literature is the norm. He has also received several awards, including the Bessemer Gold medal. Moreover, Jean-Pierre is on the editorial board of Metallurgical Research & Technology (MRT), formerly Revue de Métallurgie founded in 1904 by the famous metallurgist Henry Le Chatelier. MRT is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy. This book, “Sustainable Materials Science – Environmental Metallurgy” is entirely built on the enormous knowledge base that supports the accomplishments sketched above, and understand­ably; one volume was not enough, and we have: I. Volume 1, Chapters 1 – 9, Materials: origins, basics, resource & energy needs; II. Volume 2, Chapters 10 – 19, Materials: pollution & emissions, biodiversity, toxicology & ecotoxicology, economic and social roles, foresight. Although this Foreword focuses on the first volume, I might stray into the realms of Volume 2 on occasions, partly because the introductory chapter covers both volumes, but not least, because “…everything is connected”, and references are given to topics and details further deliberated in Volume 2. In short, the book provides a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates the physical and earth sciences with aspects of the social sciences, energy, ecology and economics. After several futile attempts to describe this book further, I stumbled across the following quote: “For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually. For me, it is only the surrounding atmosphere, which gives subjects their true value. In my opinion, this quote is a quite precise description of this book by understanding “landscape” and “subjects” as Materials, and in particular Metals. The “surrounding atmosphere” is then Society and Environment. Claude Monet 1 is of course the famous French painter from the period called Impressionism emerging in France around 1860. One of Monet’s most popular paintings, Lady with a Parasol 2 highlights both the model and her son. Her parasol, which also creates a contrast of light

 http://www.theartstory.org/artist-monet-claude-artworks.htm  http://www.theartstory.org/images20/works/monet_claude_4.jpg

1 2

Foreword

XIII

and shadows on her face and clothing, is very central in the picture, indicating which direction the actual light is coming from. Quite uniquely, Monet paints into the light letting the model’s features fade into the shadow. This is in my mind parallel to the way Jean-Pierre describes the origin and development of the materials’ history using precise “brush strokes”. Although the narrative is very clearly put forward, it is to also very much influenced by the effect of the society in which this history is evolving. Moreover, when dealing with the not so distant past, the inclusion of effects from and on the environment become more pronounced. A contemporary artist, at least chronologically, nevertheless, often included in the “Post-impressionism” period referring to a number of styles that emerged in reaction to Impressionism in the 1880s, was Paul Cézanne 3. In his works, the light was no longer an “outsider” in relation to depicted objects; rather light emanated from within, as seen clearly in Mont Sainte-Victoire 4 where mere brushes of paint suggest rocks and trees as opposed to being extens­ively depicted. The primary means of constructing the new perspective included the collocation of cool and warm colours as well as the bold overlapping of forms. Instead of the illusion, he searched for the essence. As I translate this into “Sustainable Metallurgy” we have an immensly complicated synthesis of many diverse topics, some of which are of metallurgical origin, while others strictly speaking belong to other diciplines. It is, however, the full amount of this blend that is the important issue here. In this book Jean-Pierre Birat is painting the big, holistic, picture of how materials have been produced and used in interaction with society as well as the physical surroundings. The reader will see that in earlier periods before industrialisation, the materials used needed to be made by the users themselves; material production was then an integral part of society. The material production aimed at optimising functionality and usefulnes, and not at trade value and profit in those days. Industrialisation reversed this situation and slowly trade value and profit dominated as the driving force for decisions made pertaining to which material qualities should be produced and how this should be done in practice. After some time, the industrialists and economists dominated the industry, not only the material producing industry, but industry in general. Present and future development may in a way revert back to the assimilation between material production and societal and environ­mental matters. Before you start reading this book, you should be aware of a few matters: i. The book is structured as a textbook, but it is not a textbook in “Steel Making”, “Material Science”, Environmental Engineering” or “Industrial Ecology” etc.; it is a textbook that finds its place in curricula of all of these fields of science. Development of the narratives are, how­ ever,

 http://www.theartstory.org/artist-cezanne-paul.htm  http://www.theartstory.org/images20/works/cezanne_paul_8.jpg?2

3 4

XIV

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

along two main axes: Material Science and Industrial Ecology, but with emphasis on the links between the Anthroposphere, the Geosphere and the Biosphere. ii. Although the book tells a story, or rather several stories, it does not aim at continuous reading, from cover to cover. Read the book chapter by chapter, in the order of your interests and, maybe, read each chapter in several portions: abstract and introduction first, then the over­arching conclusion putting things into a broader context before diving into the details, or switching to a different chapter. iii. The structure of each chapter is according to the same pattern and it becomes easy to navigate between the topics of your interest when you get used to this systematics. You will find much help on structuring your reading pattern in Chapter 1, and especially in in Table 2 to Table 5 at its end. iv. Beware: Reading this book and delving into its main implications might irreversibly change your frame of mind on the societal value of materials. I hope “everybody” concerned with production and use of metals and materials will read this book and really invest enough effort into application of the philosophy presented here to contribute to the sustainable development of our material-dependent society in a wide sense. For my own part, I will certainly use this book as compulsory course material in TMT 4330 simply because it provides the best possible background for getting involved with Material Science and in particular Metallurgy. Trondheim, Norway, May 2018 Professor Leiv Kolbeinsen Resources, Energy and Environment Group Department of Materials Science and Engineering Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Preface

“Time and space are not independent of one another, and not even atoms or subatomic particles can be considered in isolation.” Pope Francis [1] “By the way, do you know what an astronomer means by “metals”?  It’s not what you think…” Matt Streissler [2]

Knowledge is organized in categories, the result of a long historical maturation that can be traced back to the earlier Greek philosophers like Aristotle [3], Epicurus [4] or Roman Lucretius [5] and then refined by Kant [6], Husserl [7] and others. These categories reflect how knowledge is taught in schools and universities and how it evolves through research. This structure is shared all over the world, although it is deeply related to Western culture, which has been adopted as a modern lingua franca in most higher education institutions. Thus, Sciences on the one hand and Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) on the other are the most common distinctions: science is often termed hard science, while SSH is sometimes termed soft science or subtle science. Inside each category, there are many subcategories, like mathematics, physical sciences or life sciences. There is also another level of differentiation between basic knowledge and applied knowledge, for example basic sciences vs. engineering sciences or technology. In the SSH field, economics and business science reflect a similar dichotomy. This organization is deeply embedded in the governing structure of universities [8], in the organization of national research institutions [9], or of national academies [10, 11, 12, 13, 14], in the structure of encyclopedias, in the disciplinary domains covered by scientific journals, etc. This is why categories are robust and sustainable, even though knowledge keeps changing and evolving.

XVI

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

However, the gap between categories and the content of knowledge becomes at some point obvious and unsatisfactory. This is particularly the case, when progress cannot fit inside existing categories any more but stems from elsewhere, from new categories or from combinations of older categories, or when it simply does not match this conceptual framework at all. A popular way out of this conundrum has been to foster interdisciplinary or pluridisciplinary studies. Lively seminars and conferences abound, which bring together different disciplines and explore the no man’s land between them. However, the distance between the disciplines engaging in these conversations is usually small, so that the famous silo effect is only addressed at the margin [15]: seminars where hard and soft sciences meet and dare to exchange with technologies are still rare [16]. Moreover, after the meetings and the publication of proceedings, everyone goes back to his own world, confined by the categories which prevail in his own universe and control the financing of his research and his professional progression: the lucky ones belong to structures which have already acknowledged change, usually nimble organizations in countries that are leading in terms of productivity gain and growth, while most are back in the old and rigid categories and have to spend energy pushing back the walls in their own intellectual space. A popular example is economics, which has institutionalized the borders beyond which the discipline is no longer valid and where one should only tiptoe with the utmost care. The relevant concept is that of externalities, i.e. factors which are undoubtedly important, but do not have any effect on economic variables in mainstream neo-classical theory [17]. Environmental issues constitute one form of these externalities, along with such things as public goods or ecosystem services. They are not ignored by mainstream economics, but treated as outside parameters with methods analogous to perturbation theory, thus at the margin or as a final chapter in a book [18] or even as an afterthought [19, 20]. Some economists, however, have decided to tackle the matter more directly and have developed alternative approaches, environmental economics [21, 22] and ecological economics [23]. They deal more directly with the environment, either still as a sub-field of economics or, on the contrary as the major character in the play, where economics is described as a subsystem of the environment. Ecological economics emphasizes the concept of natural capital, which is to be preserved, and sometimes explores alternative political agendas, like green economics and zero or negative growth. Studies like the Stern Review on climate change [24] and the TEEB on biodiversity [25] are claimed by both schools of thought, environmental and ecological economics. Economics and social sciences have entertained a close relationship for a long time, probably because the awareness of social issues has challenged intellectuals for longer than environmental issues. Historians were at the forefront of this approach, thus not economists or social scientists as such: classic studies were initiated by H. Sée [26] and F. Braudel & E. Labrousse [27]. The field has since been recaptured by economists, in History of Economics courses.

Preface

XVII

Another example is Industrial Ecology, which is recognized as an academic discipline in the US, Japan and Norway but not in France, where it is hidden in the CNU 1 categories as a sub-chapter of Mechanics, and there again as a sub-chapter of Ecodesign. Not unsurprisingly, some of the leading schools of Industrial Ecology are therefore located in the US, Japan and Norway! Other disciplines are also faced with environmental and social issues and have also been treating them at the margin, as economics did initially. Metallurgy and Materials Science have adopted this approach, thus acknowledging the deep connection between their field and broader environmental and social issues, but keeping the discussions separate, as if engineering sciences, to which they belong, could stay aloof from societal challenges – to use the vocabulary of the European Union [28]. The difficulty lies with the mixture of disciplines and approaches, which extend across the fields of physical sciences, life science, earth sciences, natural and industrial ecology as well as the broad range of social sciences, reaching towards “technologies” or applied disciplines like political science, policy making, management and business strategy. Experts with such an overarching culture are difficult to find. The case for developing an integrated Environmental Metallurgy approach and thus attempting to give it disciplinary status has become strong today. It is no longer satisfactory to deal with the issues in a separate chapter of a metallurgy course or to mention metals and materials as an extra chapter of an industrial ecology book. The gap has been bridged by applied researchers and by industry players for a long time and policy makers have also been following this line of thought to encourage research and innovation through funding. The exact scope of this new discipline is still open to discussion. Environmental Metallurgy constitutes the lowest common denominator and covers most of the work already carried out in the area. However, provision for the future should be made at this point: the extension to Materials Science can be taken for granted; but environmental issues seem somewhat too narrow and a broader approach would be interesting to follow, like what we did when we launched the SOVAMAT initiative and the Society and Materials cycles of conferences [29]. Thus, Sustainable Materials Science would appear to be a better title. The ambition is not simply to reflect the larger complexity of contemporary technology and engineering sciences, but to show that such an approach should eventually lead to a more detailed and accurate description of reality, even if this reality becomes protean in the process. This is a classic objective for science and knowledge creation. Moreover, being in a position to have a larger perspective on things, beyond the traditional barriers of one discipline, should lead to a clearer view of that complexity. After exploring the issue from different angles [30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35], along with many other researchers, the author reached the conclusion that the best way forward would be to write a dedicated book presenting the case.

  CNU: Conseil National des Universités.

1

XVIII

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

The concept was field-tested in a class given at the University of Science and Technology of Beijing, since July 2016 [36]. The book has been written with students in mind, undergraduates but also graduates and post-docs. Thus, it is meant to be a textbook, to be used in connection with classes taught in universities across the world. Effort has been devoted to explaining the basics of the very many disciplines it tackles for someone from a different intellectual background to be able to acquire the necessary culture, albeit superficially. Along with students, their professors may find it useful as well. The book is also targeted at researchers, engineers and practitioners in the “hard” sciences and in the “soft” sciences, as well as in applied disciplines such as engineering, Life Cycle Analysis or management. As such, it would be a reference book, at an elementary but transverse level. A treatise would be too ambitious a name for the book, as a treatise necessarily evokes disciplinary depths which are impossible to fathom in an interdisciplinary effort. Finally, the book might be of interest also to people outside of the knowledge community, thus to various stakeholders in Society, in which we travel together. There are curious people in all walks of life, who are willing to spend time to go a bit deeper into important contemporary issues than what a good, even a very good newspaper can provide. There is a habit, in France, of writing books called “dictionnaires amoureux”, the aim of which is to introduce all kinds of topics with ambition in terms of content and complexity of treatment: these are less honkish than the present book and written with literary ambition, which we did not have. But there is also some similarity. Note that most of the chapters were created, initially, from journal’s articles I published in the past and which I have only partially rewritten. Therefore, the style is not completely uniform: sometimes a neutral narrator is in charge of telling the story, while at other times it is either myself or myself and the coauthors of these papers, speaking as “we”. Moreover, the papers were written over a period of several years and this shows in references, data and approach. Finally, there is some overlap between some chapters: this could have been easily corrected, but it was felt that keeping the texts as they are made it easier to read each chapter as a self-supporting document. Cross-references are given, anyway, to point out the connections. Since we have been playing with the concept of this book, a new journal called “Journal of Sustainable Metallurgy” has surfaced, with D.  Apelian, B. Blanpain and S.-Y. Kitamura as chief editors [37]. Moreover, the Journal of Chemistry now has a regular section on Environmental Chemistry [38]. Related topics have been coming up regularly, as special issues or single articles in more classic materials journals [39, 40, 41, 42, 43]. Jean-Pierre BIRAT, Semécourt, January 2018

Preface

XIX

Appendix. List of the societal challenges of the European Union 2 • Health, demographic change and wellbeing; • Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy; • Secure, clean and efficient energy; • Smart, green and integrated transport; • Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials; • Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societies; • Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.

References [1]

Encyclical letter, ‘Laudato si’ of the Holy Father Francis on care for our common home, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Rome, 24 mai 2015 [2] cf. Of Particular Significance, Conversations About Science with Theoretical Physicist Matt Strassler, https://profmattstrassler.com/about/about-me/, accessed on 24 August 2017. The aphorism is explained in Chapter 2, section 5. [3] Richard Bodeüs (dir.), Aristote : Œuvres : Éthiques, Politique, Rhétorique, Poétique, Métaphysique, Paris, Gallimard, coll.  «  Bibliothèque de la Pléiade », 2014 (ISBN 9782070113590), in French. [4] Diogenes Laërtius, The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, X:136. [5] Lucretius. De rerum natura. (3 vols. Latin text Books I-VI. Comprehensive commentary by Cyril Bailey), Oxford University Press 1947 [6] Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, translated by Norman Kemp Smith, London: Macmillan. [7] Edmund Husserl, Ideas: General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology, translated by W. R. Boyce Gibson, New York: Collier Books [8] Conseil National des Universités (France), Liste des sections, http://www. cpcnu.fr/listes-des-sections-cnu [9] Centre National de la Recherche scientifique, CNRS (France), Liste des sections, http://www.cnrs.fr/comitenational/sections/intitsec.php [10] Académie des Technologies (France), http://www.academie-technologies.fr/fr/commissions/ECC [11] Académie des sciences morales et politiques (France), http://www.asmp. fr/sommaire.htm [12] Académies (France), http://www.academie-sciences.fr/fr

 https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/societal-challenges

2

XX

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

[13] The Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA, Kungl. Ingenjörs­ vetenskapsakademien, Sweden), https://www.iva.se/iva-in-english1/ [14] National Academy of Sciences (NAS, USA), http://www.nasonline.org [15] J.-P. Birat, Scientific research takes place in silos, Society & Materials selection of papers to the SAM-8 conference, Matériaux & Techniques, ©EDP Sciences, 2014, DOI: 10.1051/mattech/2014040 [16] J.-P. Birat, A. Declich, S. Belboom, G. Fick, J.-S. Thomas, M. Chiappini, Society and Materials, a series of regular seminars based on a dialog between soft and hard sciences, Metallurgical Research & Technology, 2015, 112, 501, DOI/10.1051/metal/2015024 [17] R. Weintraub, Neoclassical economics, the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics, 2002 [18] cf. chapter 13 in Treatise on Process Metallurgy, Tome 3: Industrial Processes, part A, Elsevier, 2014, 1745 pp. [19] M. S. Cato, Environment and the Economy, Routeldge, 2011, 263 pages [20] J. M. Harris, Environmental & Natural Resource Economics, Houghton Mifflin, 2002, 464 pages [21] Allen K. Kneese and Clifford S. Russell, Environmental economics, The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics, v. 2, (1987), pp. 159–64 [22] Jonathan M. Harris, Environmental and Natural Resource Economics, a Contemporary Approach, Houghton Mifflin, 2002, 464 pp. [23] Anastasios Xepapadeas (2008). “Ecological economics”. The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics 2nd Edition. Palgrave MacMillan [24] Nicholas Stern, Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, 30 October 2006, 662 pages [25] TEEB, http://www.teebweb.org/, accesed on 29 Setember 2017 [26] Henri Sée, Histoire éocnomique de la France, Libriaire Armand Colin, 1939 [27] F. Bradel et E. Labrousse, Histoire économique et sociale de la France, Paris, tome 1 (1450-1680), tome 2 (1660-1789), tome 3 (1789-1880), tome 4 (volume 1 & 2: 1880-1950, volume 3: 1950-1980), PUF, 1977 and new editions in 1993 [28] https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/ societal-challenges [29] www.sovamat.org [30] JP. Birat, Scrap as sustainable resource of iron units in Europe for the Future, Stahl 2002, Düsseldorf, Nov. 14, 2002, Stahl und Eisen 123 (2003) Nr. 5, 51-57 [31] Jean-Pierre BIRAT, The greening of Steel, lecture given at USTB, 28 Oct. 2005, Beijing [32] J.-P. Birat, Environmental Metallurgy: Continuity or New Discipline? Steel Research International, Special Issue: Science and Technology of Steelmaking, Volume 85, Issue 8, pages 1240–1256, August 2014 [33] J.-P. Birat, Steel Industry: Culture and Futures, p. 49-70, Selection of lectures in honor of CAI Kaike, Progress in clean steelmaking and continuous casting, Metallurgical Industry Press, 2015, 434 pages

Preface

XXI

[34] Jean-Pierre Birat, Steel cleanliness and environmental metallurgy, Metallurgical Research & Technology, Vol. 113, No. 2 (2016) 201 page 1-24, Published online: 11 February 2016, DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.1051/metal/2015050 [35] J.-P. Birat, E. Malfa, V. Colla, J.S. Thomas, SUSTAINABLE steel production for the 2030s: the vision of the European Steel Technology Platform’s Strategic Research Agenda (ESTEP’s SRA), CleanTech, TechConnect World, the world innovation conference, 15-18 June 2014, Washington, DC [36] J.-P. Birat, 余瑜 冶金1403班, Environmental and sustainability materials science, course given at USTB, Beijing, July 2016 [37] Springer Verlag, http://www.springer.com/materials/special+types/journal/ 40831 [38] Journal of Chemistry, Hindawi Publishing Corp, https://www.hindawi. com/journals/jchem/ accessed on 2 September 201 [39] J.-P. Birat, Scientific research takes place in silos, Society & Materials - selection of papers to the SAM-8 conference, Matériaux & Techniques, ©EDP Sciences, 2014, DOI: 10.1051/mattech/2014040 [40] Jean-Pierre Birat, Andrea Declich, Sandra Belboom, Gaël Fick, JeanSébastien Thomas, Mauro Chiappini, Society and Materials, a series of regular seminars based on a dialog between soft and hard sciences, Metallurgical Research & Technology, 2015, 112, 501, DOI/10.1051/metal/2015024 [41] E. Bretagne, J. Bréard, V. Massardier et V. Verney, Ecomatériaux : les matériaux passent au vert, Revue de Métallurgie 100, 367–368 (2012) [42] Jean-Pierre Birat, Bonnes feuilles of SAM-7, Aix-la-Chapelle, 25–26 April 2013, Metallurgical Research & Technology / Volume 111 / Issue 03 / January 2014, pp 129-130 [43] J.-P. Birat, J.-S. Thomas, Beyond Life-Cycle Thinking: the SOVAMAT initiative and the SAM seminars, ECOBALANCE 2008, International Conference on Ecobalance, Tokyo, Japan

1

Introduction: Man and Nature

Los Angeles Gorge de nuages. Torse de nuages. Tous les métaux dans les nuages. Casques d’acier. Coulées de plomb. Plaque de mercure. Par une lucarne, un hublot de nuages, les gratte-ciels de Chicago, Fumées du port. Lac Michigan. Trainées de pluie. Un arc-en-ciel. Une tache noire dans l’eau. Soleil qui baisse. Dessus les nuages. Métaux de nuages. Limaille de fer. Sphères de fonte. Lames de tôles. Pas un regard, pas un oculus de ces nuages, les grues et les usines de Detroit Fumées de houille. le lac Saint Clair. Le lac Erié. Windsor au Canada. Une trainée de pluie. Le soleil. Baisse sur nuages. Métaux en nuages.

2

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Poudre d’étain. Fils de platine. Filons de zinc. Par un voyant, par une trappe les nuages les quais et les bassins de Montréal. Gares et parcs. Trainées de pluie. Virage. L’aérodrome. Pistes luisantes. Michel Butor. Réseau aérien, anthologie nomade, 1962 “Nous n’habitons plus la même planète que nos aïeux : la leur était immense, la nôtre est petite.” 1 Bertrand de Jouvenel “We are surrounded by a rich and fertile mystery.” Henry David Thoreau “Il faut reboiser l’âme humaine” Julos Beaucarne

Abstract Materials are a central and enduring feature of human societies. They are deeply embedded in the history of mankind, starting from the deep times of early Prehistory, i.e. since several million years ago. And materials have accompanied the various cultures and “civilizations”, since the Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age until the present, which some have called the Silicon Age. Traditionally, Materials are taught in the University as a discipline called Materials Science, which is an Engineering Science. There are many excellent Textbooks introducing the subject as well as sophisticated Treatises written for researchers. The approach is clearly that of a hard science and of an applied science. This book has a different viewpoint and tells a series of stories which cover a much broader field, thus stepping outside of Engineering and tapping into all the relevant disciplines which talk about materials: Physics, Natural and Life Sciences, History and Economics but also Social Sciences, with a small excursion into the Philosophies of Technology and of Materials.

  We do not live on the same planet as our ancestors did: theirs was huge, ours is small.

1

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

3

The rationale for bringing all of these stories into a coherent framework is related to the old tension between man and nature. A modern model of this is called Sustainability or Sustainable Development, an approach which has been adopted by various stakeholders, from international organizations like the UN, to national governments, various academic disciplines and many other players in civil society. Another approach, more closely explored as a scientific discipline, is called Ecology and Industrial Ecology. It can be simplified in a model that organizes Mankind and Nature in “spheres”: the sphere of mankind and people, the Anthroposphere, which also includes the Technosphere, and the spheres of Nature, both “still-life” Nature comprising the Geosphere with Atmosphere and Hydrosphere and the Living part of Nature, the Biosphere. This first chapter explores these various models, explains their connection to materials, defines what precise issues are involved and, therefore, presents the reasons why this Book is needed and makes clear why it is called Sustainable Materials Science and Environmental Metallurgy. The 9 chapters of the Book are outlined at the end of the chapter. This book is about the complexity and the coherence of the world over the long term, and the impermanence of ideas, concepts, artifacts and materials. It is also a story of the grandiloquent play of life, the life of the biosphere but also that of how our collective way of understanding the world has changed: all the World’s a stage, Shakespeare said [1]. As André Malraux said: “le monde de l’art n’est pas celui de l’éternité mais celui de la métamorphose” 2: we might add that this is also true of Science and of the many tools that man has been using in his effort to understand the world.

What questions can be answered after reading this chapter? 1. Discuss the connection between environmental issues and population. Review the various schools of thought formulated at historical waypoints since Malthus. Used data shown in volume 2, chapter 9. 2. Discuss the dichotomy between Mankind and Nature as described by myths, religions and philosophy. What culture does the mainstream views today stem from? 3. Discuss the dialectic connection between GDP and mankind’s Ecological Footprint, for example as expressed by the Earth Overshoot Day. How does this conform with the traditional political vision of society, for example the Class Struggle of Marxism? What does that say about the political status of Political Ecology as compared to more traditional political philosophies?

  “The world of Art is not the world of eternity but the world of metamorphosis.”

2

4

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

4. Reformulate the Sphere Model proposed by scientific and industrial ecology. Is it a factual description of how the world operates at the level of nature, mankind and society, or is it a model, or simply a metaphor? 5. Are the concepts of Sustainable Development and of Sustainability strictly equivalent or not? 6. Criticize the vision that Sustainable Development originates from the Brundtland report. 7. Discuss the appropriation of Sustainable Development by various stakeholders – international organizations, governments, business, “Green” political parties, environmental NGOs, citizens, social sciences and natural sciences disciplines, etc. 8. Sustainable Development and the Sciences. 9. Explain the organization of the book chapters in terms of ecological spheres. Contrast it against traditional presentations of Materials Science. Some of the questions require looking for information outside of this chapter and of this book. Reading itineraries • natural and industrial ecology: biosphere, anthroposphere, geosphere and other spheres • philosophy and history of the concepts of mankind and nature sustainability

Human activities are not interacting with the Environment at the margin anymore and it is therefore not sufficient to speak about city air pollution or some other local environmental effects to describe an interaction that has reached an unprecedented global scale, in a transition that has been taking place with an accelerated kinetics.

1. Connection between man and nature: demography and economy This is primarily due to the size of the world population, 7.4 billion people in June 2016 going up to 10 billion or possibly more towards the end of the 21st century: 50% of them live in urban areas today and the projections are for an urbanization of 67% by 2050, cf. Figure 1.1 [2].

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

5

Figure 1.1 – Evolution of urban and rural population in the world since 1950. The crossover took place in 2009 [3].

Figure 1.2 – Recent evolution of GDP per capita in the world (in current US$) [4].

The size of the economy has grown accordingly, especially since wealth is better shared among countries than ever before in history, and because poverty has been receding [5]. This growth in GDP and, more importantly, in GDP per capita (Figure 1.2), driven by the two factors of population and wellbeing, has intensified the utilization of natural resources and boosted up international trade, which moves raw materials across the world and redistributes manufactured products back to consumers. Moreover, a strong interaction of mankind with the climate has constituted the fabric of history since prehistorical times.

6

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

For example, the Neolithic revolution, which put mankind in a special controlling position over nature by starting its settlement in farms, then in villages and eventually in cities, has caused climax landscapes to disappear, most especially in Europe [6]. The process took place through the clearing of forests and the creation of agricultural space, fields for growing crops and meadows for raising cattle, which has released CO2 into the atmosphere at an accelerated pace, thus boosting the rise in temperature and making the eventual return of a new glaciation cycle more unlikely. More recently, the Little Ice Age of the 17th century (Figure 1.3) has been attributed to the Great Plague, which killed between ¼ and 1/3 of the population in Europe, reduced economic activities and congruently decreased greenhouse gas emissions from households [7]. The connection between human activities and the Climate is therefore probably as long as the history of mankind on Earth: what is new with Climate Change today is the pace at which it is occurring.

Figure 1.3 – Evolution of ground atmospheric temperature during historical times, showing the Little Ice Age [8].

2.

The connection between Man and Nature in various cultures and religions

The connection between man and nature has been considered as so essential in all cultures that each has produced a creation myth, with the relationship between man and nature being defined by no less than a god. This is an essential dimension of mythologies and of religions. But it also provides an answer to the philosophical question of where mankind comes from: from this perspective, the relationship between man and nature belongs to metaphysics and more particularly to ontology.

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

7

The Bible, for example, puts mankind in charge of nature at the very beginning of the Creation [9]: 26 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And it was so.” Modern science and technology, which stem from the industrial and the scientific revolutions in Western Europe, are, volens, nolens, based on this worldview, buoyed by the success and the enthusiasm that science has created in Europe since the Age of Enlightenment until it became the doxa all over the world. Of course, other voices in the Christian tradition have told a different storyline, like Saint Francis of Assisi, who reminded people, that “our common home (nature) is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us. Praise be to you, my Lord, through our Sister, Mother Earth, who sustains and governs us, and who produces various fruits with colored flowers and herbs” [10]. These words of Francis of Assisi are quoted in the Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis, Laudato si [11], in which the Holy See has revised the interpretation of the Bible and embraced the idea that nature should be preserved and that the role of human beings is to take proper care of the Earth, “to till and keep it”, rather than brutally “take dominion” of it. A detailed and contemporary vision of ecology 3 is given in this Letter and environmental issues are linked to social ones, especially to the need for a more inclusive society, in addition to a moral and religious discussion. Other cultures and other religions base the position of man in nature on different premises. Thus, in Buddhism, human beings do not play any special role in nature and are not different from other living beings: when he meditates, the Buddhist identifies himself with a morning flower, a boulder in the mountain or the quiet and clear water in a lake; thus, with everything to which he is intimately linked in nature [12]. All cultures have a creation myth, which tells the story of how the world was created and how human beings came to walk on Earth. Most are related to religions and the older ones are part of mythologies [13]. The Big Bang Theory is the latest one, although one endowed with the aura of modern science.

3

  Etymologically from οἶκος and λόγος. It thus means a discourse on “our house, our home”.

8

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

A more general discussion of religions and environment is to be found in a book collection by Harvard University Press [14] and a review of the various critical approaches, which constitute a lively interdisciplinary field, in [15].

3.

The “Ecological Footprint” of the world

What is new at the beginning of the 21st century is the magnitude reached by the world economy, which has become integrated in a process called globalization, with its many ramifications. For example, speaking of land use beyond city and agriculture, part of it has been devoted to the logistics of moving people and things, while a shrinking proportion is left to natural ecosystems (cf. Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4 – Land use for various societal functions (EU) [16].

Figure 1.5 – Evolution of the world Environmental Footprint between 1960 and 2012 [17].

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

9

The sheer size of raw materials and energy needs and the volume of artifacts and waste released back to nature has now grown so big that some research and advocacy groups have started to speak of a global environmental footprint that exceeds the fair share of present generations as compared to future ones (cf. Figure 1.5). NFA 4 [18] has been compiling a series of national and global Ecological footprints based on the aggregation of the flows of agricultural, livestock, fishery and timber products plus CO2 emissions, which are compared to the ability of the planet to generate bioproducts or absorb CO2 in a sustainable way, and called its biocapacity. Due to the composite nature of these indexes 5, the day in the year, when the footprint exceeds biocapacity, occurs before the 31st of December and is called the Earth Overshoot Day (EOD). It is widely reported in the media and contributes to popularizing the idea that the present generation is living beyond its means, although the date is calculated in a fairly non-transparent way. The EOD in 2016 is the 8th of August, while it was reported as the 28th of July in 2019. Typical results produced by NFA analysis are given in Figure 1.5 showing the aggregated composition of the world ecological footprint and in Figure 1.6 presenting the comparison between footprint and biocapacity according to calendar years: the unsustainability of the world, according to this analysis, started in 1970.

Figure 1.6 – Per capita surface footprint of human activities [19].

Another recent point is that global environmental issues are becoming the norm rather than the exception.

National Footprint Accounting. This is a sleigh of hand, as consumption and production of bioproducts are necessarily balanced in the absence of endemic hunger, while the capacity of the planet to produce food stock is still larger than consumption! In other words, the footprint measures mainly the carbon budget. 4 5

10

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Mankind has been transforming nature to such an extent and at such a pace that a central question today is whether this is sustainable and how a functioning planet can be transmitted to future generations 6: there might be limits to the mandate given to Adam and Eve to do with the world as they pleased! 7

4. The planet as a series of “spheres”, an ecological categorization Various models have been proposed to picture this interaction of mankind with nature at a planetary scale. On the one hand, there is the natural world, the geosphere and the biosphere 8 – or the ecosphere, where “eco” stands for ecology. The biosphere or the ecosphere follow the biological laws developed spontaneously by life over several billion years of evolution. It is composed of ecosystems, where a teeming network of living organisms from flora and fauna operate in a robust, sustainable way (resilience) at a large range of scales, what is called today biodiversity, and it delivers the ecological services that these ecosystems provide to the planet and to mankind. Below the surface where life strives, in strata of rocks inherited from the geological past, lies the geosphere where natural, non-renewable resources 9, minerals, metallic ores and fossil energy are concentrated. Geosphere and ecosphere have deeply interacted in the past over billions of years and part of the non-renewable energy resources, like fossil fuel for example, and most of the raw materials used for making materials originate from the biosphere (many metal ores, limestone for making cement) [20] and so does the present composition of the atmosphere 10 [21]. On the other hand, there is the world of mankind, called the anthroposphere – sometimes also the technosphere 11 or the econosphere. This part of the world follows rules formerly spelled out by philosophers or religious leaders, and today by politicians, business leaders, scientists, engineers, i.e. the stakeholders of society as a whole. Behind the concept of anthroposphere lies a rudimentary

6   The concept itself reflects the Genesis vision of the human being in charge of nature and of planet Earth and worrying about his ability to transmit this inheritance to his children, i.e. to future generations. 7   See volume 2, chapter 9 for a broader interrogation about this connection between mankind and nature, especially the thesis of Ulrich Beck. 8   These words have been forged from the vocabulary of geography, i.e. the atmosphere, the lithosphere and the hydrosphere. 9   Abiotic resources, to use the language of LCA. 10   The concept of emergy tackles this geological connection and works out how non-renewable energy stems from solar energy and has been stored in the ground. 11   Of course, this expression is a metaphor, which depicts the economic organization of society as if it were a mirror of the biosphere. Another expression, urban metabolism is also used in conjunction with this attempt to emphasize the complexity of that system.

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

11

understanding of how the world operates at a physical level, as expressed by physics, chemistry and engineering sciences and especially material science and metallurgy, as far as materials are concerned. These concepts have been developed as part of scientific ecology, related to biology, and of industrial ecology, related to engineering sciences. These ecological spheres are metaphors of geographical concepts. Moreover, the concepts of these ecological spheres do not have unique definitions and authors tend to charge them with their own visions. A more detailed analysis is given in [22].

5.

The concept of Sustainable Development

Biosphere and technosphere interact. This interaction has mostly been described until now at the margin, i.e. as small perturbations caused by the environment to the way society and the economy operate. The prevalent model in this school of thought is that of sustainable development (SD), illustrated by the diagrams of Figure 1.7, the mainstream view first and a variant second, in which the format of a Venn diagram was chosen. Note that the intersections between domains, two by two, define regions, which represent bearable, viable and equitable development: sustainable development combines all of these options at the same time. The diagram on the right shows an ecological economy worldview, where various forms of capital are referenced: manufacturing and financial capital, in the economy circle, nature capital, in the ecosystem circle and social & human capital in the human wellbeing circle.

Figure 1.7 – Visions of sustainable development: various domains, separate in their conceptual meaning, intersect.

12

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

When the time dimension is introduced, the principle of intergenerational solidarity emerges, i.e. the idea that future generations should inherit a workable Earth on which they can live, self-sufficiently. The region, where the three separate circles of the economy, society and the environment intersect, should be preserved in the future in order to ensure sustainable development: this is an ethical principle, posited by international organizations, governments, NGOs and companies. The three circles are viewed as independent and the point of sustainable development is pictured as the search for organizational rules that make the intersection large and stable enough over time. The circles represent what has been called the three Pillars of Sustainability. We will now borrow a metaphor from Architecture: sustainability can be seen as the tympanum of a Greek temple, which rests on three pillars or columns (cf. Figure 1.8).

Figure 1.8 – The three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental and economic.

Historically, the concept of sustainable development, which is the process of reaching the ideal of sustainability, was popularized by the Brundtland report of 1987 [23, cf. Appendix 1], which was commissioned by the newly created UN Conference on Human Environment to look for solutions to steer development from purely economic targets to environmental ones and thus avoid the environmental degradation which was starting to be seen as a direct consequence of economic growth and development. The word sustainable in its modern sense was first used in 1972 by the Club of Rome in its Limits to Growth book [24]. A modern definition of sustainable development is the following: sustainable development is a process for meeting human development goals while sustaining the ability of natural systems to continue to provide the natural resources and ecosystem services upon which the economy and society depend. The concept of sustainability belongs to various narratives told by many disciplines and different stakeholders in society. It is part of government and

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

13

international policies 12, but also of business communication, formerly in dedicated Sustainability Reports and nowadays in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports (Figure 1.9) [25, 26, 27, 28]. In such contexts, sustainability is defined by ad hoc methodologies and the connection with the definitions given before is loose, at best. Mutatis mutandis, CSR is related to TCA, Transnational Company Agreements, which, however, focuses mainly on labor organization and labor rights.

Figure 1.9 – Corporate Social Responsibility approaches [29]. The narrative is focused on objectives, which belong to the concepts of business and management and use their language.

The concept is therefore rather fuzzy and is more a motivational narrative than the rigorous description of a trajectory towards a truly sustainable future. Some critics have called sustainable development an oxymoron, while others equate CSR to greenwashing.

12 France, for example, has a Ministry of the Environment, Energy and the Sea, at http://www. developpement-durable.gouv.fr/-Ministere-.html. In a former government, it was called Ministry of Sustainable Development.

14

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

These definitions of sustainable development are often called “weak” as opposed to a situation, in which sustainability could be demonstrated through some science-based studies and would then be called “strong sustainability”. This distinction is favored among some schools of economists, who have the tools to flesh it out with scientific instruments and metrics. Weak sustainability stems from the work of Robert Solow and John Hartwick, who take the neoclassical approach to environmental economics and assume that human and natural capital are interchangeable from the standpoint of future generations. On the other hand, strong sustainability, which is the playground of ecological economists, states that natural capital is non-substitutable. The two approaches are critically analyzed in [30] to tackle the issue of whether either form of sustainability can indeed demonstrate whether sustainability is achievable or not. Eric Neumayer, like many before him, concludes that the question has no answer (“both paradigms are non-falsifiable”) 13, which calls into question the concept of sustainability, whether weak or strong. There is another thought-provoking theory, which explains that development is actually fed by the destruction of the environment [31] and therefore that the process is irreversible – the exact contrary of sustainable development! Sustainability will therefore remain an ethical, motivational principle, on which most observers and players agree, but without any shared and common methodology to support it: as Eric Neumayer states: “SD is like peace and freedom – that is something to which no reasonable person would overtly object. Development always sounds good and that it has to be sustainable seems self-evident”. Beyond the earlier documents, which set the tune for defining sustainable development in the United Nations (cf. Table 1.1), implementation plans were designed and put into practice to advance towards it. The first implementation plan was Agenda 21 [34], a commitment signed by 173 countries at the Earth Summit in Rio, which spelled out the various areas in which action ought to be taken (poverty, health, housing, pollution, ocean, forest and mountain management, desertification, management of the water resource and sanitation, agriculture policy and waste management) and which approaches should be given priority in order to ensure sustainable development at various territorial scales. Its progress was checked regularly in further conferences (Rio+5, Rio+10 and Rio+20 in 2012, where the Agenda was reconfirmed under the heading of “The Future We want”). Progress has indeed been achieved, although it cannot be claimed that sustainability has been reached! A second plan, the Millennium Project, was commissioned by the United Nations Secretary-General in 2002 to develop a concrete action plan for the world to achieve the 8 Millennium Development Goals and “to reverse the grinding poverty, hunger and disease affecting billions of people” [Figure 1.10]. Contrary to Agenda 21, the Millennium goals, which were initially more realistically calibrated, were achieved earlier than planned. This mirrored the powerful development of China and of other emerging economies, the creation of   Cf. the definition of the concept by Karl Popper, in volume 2, Chapter 8.

13

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

15

a numerous middle class across the world and the visible reduction of extreme poverty over the planet. table 1.1 – A simplified history of sustainability, as epitomized in major UN meetings and documents. The Club of Rome: the Limits to Growth, written by a group of scientists led by Dennis and Donella Meadows

1972

UN Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm 1972)

Stockholm, 1972

Creation of the Brundtland Commission

December 1983

Brundtland Commission Report: Our Common Future

1987

UNCED Earth Summit (1992)

Rio, 1992

United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) signed 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit [32] United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity [33], signed at the Rio Earth Summit

1992

Agenda 21

1992

Kyoto protocol

11 December 1997

Millennium Goals

2002

Paris agreement (COP21)

2015

Agenda for Sustainable Development

September 2015

Figure 1.10 – The 8 Millennium Goals.

16

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Figure 1.11 – The 17 sustainable development goals of the UN adopted in 2015 [35].

On September 25th, 2015, countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda (cf. Figure 1.11). Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years [35].

6.

Sustainable Development and the spheres model

The Sustainable Development model does not fit easily with that of the biosphere, the ecosphere and the anthroposphere. Indeed, the biosphere and the ecosphere are not simply identical to the environment circle in Figure 1.7 14. Furthermore, the anthroposphere is not simply composed of the economy and society circles, as more dimensions or categories have to be taken on board, like technology, philosophy, knowledge or science. Rather than the Venn diagram of Figure 1.7, where domains are simply shown to intersect, Figure 1.12 might be a more appropriate way to visually represent what is sustainable development: indeed, now the economy is embedded inside society and society is included in the world, the environment, of which it is an integral, not a separate part. This view is coherent with that of ecological economics.

14

The word environment relegates nature to the sidelines of society.

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

17

Figure 1.12 – A different view of the connection between ecosphere and anthroposphere: rather than intersecting, the circles are embedded into each other.

Figure 1.13 – Biosphere and anthroposphere.

The anthroposphere is immerged in the biosphere as shown in Figure 1.13 15, which is a reformulation of the model of Figure 1.7, in the vocabulary of ecological spheres. One might be tempted to argue that the anthroposphere has separated out of the biosphere, for example in the mega-cities that are now spread around the world: but, until cities are only populated by robots, they constitute particular ecosystems, with their own biodiversity and with a major concentration of a rather important part of the biocenose, human beings!

15 The picture tells more than an objective model should: it seems indeed to imply that the finiteness of the environment bounds the growth of the anthroposphere, a Malthusian kind of statement, which is not accepted by many economists.

18

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

The anthroposphere actually extends mostly on continental lands and islands, but ocean infrastructures, boats and ships are also part of it. The technosphere, which is made of the technological artifacts produced by society and mainly the factories, mills, plants and the logistic infrastructure, is included in the anthroposphere, although the distinction between these two is not necessarily clearly and universally defined. The biosphere includes all living beings, fauna and flora, but also the ecosystems in which they are organized, therefore both biotope and biocenose. It extends over land but also sea and ocean (hydrosphere). Below a few meters, the realm of soil (and of pedology) and of building and civil engineering foundations, starts the lithosphere, i.e. the solid crust that floats on top of the mantle, the upper layer of which is the source of most primary raw materials and fossil fuels and is called the geosphere. There is a time dimension in the concept of sustainable development, but one that looks ahead into the future, that of the next generations. The historical dimension, focusing rather on the past, is captured by other concepts and expressions, like the Ecozoic era [36] or the Anthropocene [37]. They both purport to add a new period in the geology time sequence, an era in the first case (cf. the Cenozoic), an epoch in the second case (cf. the Miocene), during which human beings had an overwhelming influence on the evolution of life on the planet. The concepts lie at the frontier of communication and science and they have perhaps received more media attention than scientific thought.

7. Sustainability and sciences The previous considerations about the connection between society and the environment are important, because they shape the way that environmental issues are taken on board by science and technology. The environment has penetrated more or less surreptitiously into many scientific disciplines, as in economics where neoclassical theory treats it as an externality (cf. the preface) [38, 39]. Other social sciences, like Sociology, have also taken up the challenge, although still rather timidly [40, 41, 42, 43], and Anthropology as well [44]. Metallurgy and Materials Science are disciplines, which are related to physics and to physical chemistry and the environment is also an externality in their methodological approach. The only environmental discourse in physical metallurgy is related to corrosion, the study of how metals interact with the environment at their outer physical boundaries. Process metallurgy is mainly focused on the major elements necessary for making metals, i.e. the metal itself and the major reactants needed in the process, which turn out to be the key drivers of processing costs – a link to economics which would seem to be the yardstick of societal relevance, even in the “hard” scientific discipline that metallurgy is.

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

19

Extractive metallurgy, a synonymous but older expression than process metallurgy, tackles the issue of raw materials and thus gets closer to more environmental matters. Environmental matters are thus not usually discussed in metallurgy books, or they are relegated to a final chapter [45], added for completeness, almost as an afterthought. Metal businesses share the same vision of the role of the environment: it is important, especially because legislation reminds industries that this is indeed how political governance sees it, but its connection with the bottom line is weak, again a kind of externality. To grasp what the relationship between metallurgy and environment might be, one should introduce environmental issues which have not yet been mentioned: • recycling, a key issue in the partial close-loop economies 16 into which our societies are evolving now; • lean use of materials, through more efficient design, use of higher property materials or reuse of parts; • by-products, which are related to the production of waste by industry and to its handling; • emissions to air, water and soil, which are related to pollution issues – and thus to toxicity and ecotoxicity, to health and safety in the workplace and to public health – and clean production technologies, the operational, actionoriented answer to these issues; • the environmental footprint, as a measure of what damage the production of goods does to the environment and to the stock of raw materials that is reserved by the planet for future generations; • the social footprint, as a measure of the positive and sometimes negative impacts that industrial and economic activities have on people. • one could also mention climate change and biodiversity, two global issues with which business activities interact. This positions materials in a global system of an ecological nature, where essential “vectors/fluids” are exchanged between nature (the biosphere and the geosphere) and the economy (the anthroposphere), the essence of which is environmental in the usual meaning of this word. Thus, environmental metallurgy would be similar to ecological economics rather than to environmental economics. In addition, Society should remain an important part of the global picture that we intend to draw. This is already the case for Sustainability, of which Society is one of the “three pillars”. However, the social part of sustainability has been its weakest part, in terms of volume of published work. This is probably due to the special features of Social Sciences, which proceed at their own

  A closed-loop economy is synonymous to the Circular Economy.

16

20

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

pace and do not easily accept guidance from the outside, thus not from political science, business circles or engineering sciences. As a matter of fact, social LCA [46], for example, deals with working conditions and health issues rather than with the issues of interest for Social Sciences in a more general way. Social Sciences, though, have contributed some of the deepest and most interesting insights into science, technology and materials (cf. volume 2, chapter 8), even if a lot more is expected from them in the future. This book intends to explore what structured knowledge is available today concerning the connection between metallurgy-materials science, the environment and society. It will start from inside the traditional discipline and move outwards to more open systems. The point is to demonstrate that a new discipline is in the making. The book describes materials in general, but many examples stem from metallurgy and from the steel industry, from which the author draws most of his experience. If the reader finds too much steel in a particular chapter, this imbalance is corrected somewhere else in another chapter. Moreover, as will be demonstrated later, steel is a paradigmatic material, it exhibits features that are shared by most other materials, and, therefore, it can often serve as a relevant example. There is a science of the environment called Ecology, of which two variants exist. Scientific Ecology is a part of the Life Sciences, which deals with all of them in a holistic, systemic way, exploring how life constitutes a system and follows biological laws, the foremost of which is Evolutionary Science, that have ensured the resilience of life over billions of years. When society and man come into the picture, then Industrial Ecology takes the center stage. It proceeds as a metaphor of scientific ecology, as the name of the various spheres already mentioned show, or as the expressions of industrial, urban or socio-economic metabolisms demonstrate. Many of the issues touched upon in the two volumes of this book have been taught for the most part in ecology textbooks [47,48]. The point we wish to make here is that these topics should move out of this fairly specialized field, not universally taught in many countries, and become an integral part of metallurgy and materials science.

8. Organization of the book The book is organized in a series of chapters: • Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature The connection between Man and Nature is central to all the metaphysics thinking developed by various societies throughout the history. It is deeply anchored in religious and mythological views of the world.

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

21

In modern times, the popular concepts are those of sustainability, ecology and industrial ecology. There are strong and weak versions of sustainability. Natural science, relayed by some vision of society portrayed in Industrial ecology organizes the world in spheres: the ecosphere, the geosphere and the biosphere in addition to the hydrosphere and the atmosphere. Social sciences, economics, political science, industrial ecology and scientific ecology have refined the concept of sustainability and introduced another sphere, where society and mankind play an essential role, the anthroposphere. This allows a fairly holistic approach to environmental issues. The organization of the present book stems from this analysis. • Chapter 2 – Introduction to some aspects of Metallurgy and Materials science relevant to sustainability This chapter gives a general summary of the field of metallurgy, to introduce concepts and knowledge necessary for the rest of the book and to point out, in practical terms, how metallurgy and sustainability issues intersect. The special relationship of metals with equilibrium is explained. Most metals are out of equilibrium with nature (the environment), i.e. they tend to oxidize spontaneously and revert to oxides, i.e. minerals similar to the ores in the form of which they occur naturally. They are produced at high temperatures where they are in equilibrium with the physicochemical conditions prevailing in the metallurgical reactor. The difference between the two equilibria is the time scale. What is true of metals and simple to explain in terms of physical chemistry is also true of most modern materials, although in a more conceptual way. • Chapter 3 – Materials and tools, a historical perspective from prehistorical times until today. The evolution and transformation of materials and of process technologies for making them has accompanied the emergence of man and his evolution throughout History: how to analyze this change in terms of progress or similar concepts? Did the Age of Bronze or the Ages of Iron define prehistorical times in ways that explain major historical transitions along the arrow of time that has led to our present society – or not? Is there some kind of conceptual continuity between the materials used in this very distant past and those used today? Can this help define the core nature of materials, beyond the simple words like steel or aluminum or concrete or graphene and besides the catalogues of material producers? Can the approach propose a historical thread making it possible to understand what is change and what is permanent across ages and even eons?

22

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

• Chapter 4 – Materials comparison: competition or cooperation? Very many different materials were discovered or invented throughout history and the process continues, the latest burst of innovation being centered on nanomaterials and complementary concepts. Do they develop and die, like a marketing product in the modern world of consumption? How do materials interact with each other? Do they compete fiercely and eliminate the weakest, in a kind of metaphor of evolution? Or do they have a more enduring, resilient role, changing and adapting at the margin, leaving room for newcomers but building continuously on past achievements in a cumulative manner, thus holding their place, for some of them, most of them, all of them? Could Materials be considered as invariants in the series of technological epistemes that constitute the fabric of technology evolution? Would this not be the core of their ontological nature? The modern concept, presently active, seems to be cooperation to make the material substrate and the structure of the complexity of present society possible. • Chapter 5 – Corrosion and oxidation of metals Corrosion constitutes the first entry point of metallurgy in environmental issues at the local scale of the metallic surface. Corrosion is a reversion of metals to a state of equilibrium with the environment. It has prompted a full-fledged technology for fighting it. The physics of corrosion and oxidation will be explained as well as countermeasures to alleviate its effects: coatings but also many more clever solutions. • Chapter 6 – Process engineering from the standpoint of environmental metallurgy Process Engineering (PE) is that part of metallurgy that explains in great details, through numerical simulations in particular, how materials are made in mills, plants and factories and help design and improve the equipment used in the industry. Process engineering until today has been mostly utilitarian, describing for example the making of steel in terms of iron and carbon mostly, while there are at least 50 elements present in the purest iron. This can be called a Pareto modeling of PE [49], whereby the focus is on a few major causes that can explain most of the important outcomes for operating the mills and ensuring their economic viability. Minor elements account for subtle properties such as purity and cleanliness and they are deeply related to environmental emissions and to the generation of waste and residues. However, they have been mostly left out of mainstream process engineering. Some important modeling has been devoted to dust generation [50] or the production of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and to many other issues relevant for the environment, but they are still

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

23

carried out at the margin and not as numerous as they probably ought to be. The chapter takes stock of existing work but explains how more work should be done in the future to advance more quickly and boldly towards solving important environmental issues. • Chapter 7 – Resources, materials and primary raw materials Materials are extracted from the geosphere and thus have a deep connection with nature, but also from the anthroposphere through reuse, recycling and the model of the Circular Economy. The relevant concepts are ores, mines, mining, primary raw materials, and the main contemporary issue is the availability of raw materials – particularly scarcity issues and economic issues related to price, especially price volatility. Secondary raw materials are the focus of chapter 8. Primary and secondary raw materials are connected in terms of competition and equilibrium, economics (price dynamics), volumes, etc. One little-discussed resource is logistics, which is also limited and, as such, ought to be managed like raw materials for similar reasons. • Chapter 8 – Materials and secondary raw materials. The Circular Economy. Secondary raw materials, known as scrap, feed the Circular Economy through recycling and reuse. Recycled metals are “renewable materials”. Beyond materials, recycling of residues is also carried out, which is part of industrial ecology. Raw materials for steel production – iron ore and coal mostly – are neither rare nor scarce, except for a very few alloying and reactant elements, for the fundamental reason that iron is the most abundant element in the Earth and a fairly common one as well in the crust. This does not mean, however, that they will be used indiscriminately in the future, because, for example, steel is presently already recycled to a high level (83% and 36 years of average life) [51] and, when peak steel production is reached, probably towards the end of this century, a full circular economy will take over, except, possibly, at the margin for a small number of niche applications. Similar statements for other metals can be made, as well as for some other materials.

24

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

The progression of the book will be pictured in relation with the scheme of Figure 1.14, which represents the three main spheres of industrial ecology, within which the various chapters evolve: the biosphere in green, the geosphere in purple and the anthroposphere in yellow. Metals are in the center of the representation, not in an artificially central position but because materials are at the core of the book and of the anhtroposhere.

Figure 1.14 – Organization of the 19 chapters of the two volumes of the book, in connection with the biosphere, the anthroposphere and the geosphere, with metals and materials sitting in the center as the unifying topic 17.

17

This picture was prepared for this book by Chroki Boubakri.

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

25

9. Conclusions of chapter 1 Environmental metallurgy is like a series of narratives, told from two different standpoints: on the one hand, the perspective of different disciplines, diverse players and miscellaneous stakeholders and, on the other hand, from the perspective of different time scales: time of the distant past, time of the present, time of the future, quick time like short range outlooks and slow time that endures like geological time, life evolution time or long historical time [52]. Of course, metals and materials lie at the intersection of these two axes, in a kind of anthropomorphic position, which, however, simply corresponds to the rhetorical needs of writing a book about this very subject! The point is to analyze the specific, original, singular, unique, remarkable, significant, outstanding features of materials and metals, in the past, the present and the future, and to identify them in order to throw light on what has been driving a true revolution, the continuous and continuing creation of materials, which has been going on for several million years and which is not about to stop abruptly. This is probably not how a textbook is usually written, as such a book likes to draw on first principles, if the discipline can rely and depend on them, and/or on a solid set of methodologies anchored in strong empirical research. The different chapters cover topical themes and issues that arise when discussing materials in connection with the environment and sustainability, thus of space and time (cf. volume 2, chapter 11: conclusions). There is some overlap between chapters, because the issues do sometimes overlap. For example, Foresight, which is the central topic of volume 2, chapter 10, is also mentioned and developed in chapter 4, and volume 2, chapters 2, 4, 6 and 7, because issues like resources or energy cannot be discussed extensively if a long-time future vision is not included in the discussion. Thus, some of the material presented in different chapters will occasionally be the same. The point is to make each chapter self-sufficient in terms of reading. There is also much to say, from a pedagogical standpoint, for going through an argument again and again, in slightly different contexts. Finally and pragmatically, the book was built around a series of published papers, written over the course of several years, which helped develop the approach and the rationale behind the book: the format is therefore like a series of collected texts by the author on the various themes that make up sustainable materials science. This also means that the style varies from chapter to chapter, sometimes speaking in the neutral form (“it”, passive form) and at other times letting the author speak as “we”, thus either himself or the group of authors of the original papers.

26

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

10. Other itineraries to explore this book The book was built around the rationale of the spheres of industrial ecology, which we also called the sustainability narrative: Thus, the book explores these spheres and, most importantly, the interactions at the interface of the spheres, along its various chapter. This is described in more detail in reference [53], where an analogy is drawn with the Music or the Harmony of the Spheres of Ancient Greece. There are other ways to explore the book, therefore other itineraries that can be followed by the reader who wants to keep tract of a specific subject, disciplinary approach or material. They will be shown at the beginning of each chapter under the label of reading itineraries. The various disciplines handled in the various chapters are shown in Table 1.2 and Table 1.3. A dark cell indicates that the discipline is more specifically discussed in a particular chapter. For example, process engineering is covered in many chapters, thus volume 1, chapters 2 (theoretical conditions for reducing ores), 3 (process technology for making most common metals, historical and present), 4 (process technology for producing glass, cement, aluminum and timber), 6 (typology of process reactor for making materials), 7 (mining and ore preparation technology, energy needs and GHG emissions), 9 (energy needs for making materials), and volume 2, chapters 2 (LCA, MFA, etc. of materials), 4 (sociology of materials) and 5 (toxicology of materials and generation of pollutants during materials production). Chapter 6 is more exclusively focused on that topic. Various aspects of process engineering are introduced in the chapters of the book, as they are required by the sustainability narrative. In a standard textbook, a single chapter would deal with all aspects of process engineering. A different series of itineraries, based on the kind of materials that is the particular topic of a chapter, is given in Table 1.4 to Table 1.5. For example, cement is covered in volume 1, chapters 3 (history of tools and materials), 4 (comparison between materials in terms of properties, function, social value), 5 (specific mechanisms of concrete corrosion), 6 (process reactors and specific emissions of cement making), 7 (raw materials), 9 (energy needs of cement making), and volume 2, chapters 2 (GHG emissions due to cement production), 4 (LCA, etc. of cement and concrete), 5 (toxicology issues related to cement production), 7 (the organization of the cement production business, past and present), 9 (foresight abut cement production) and 10 (as it covers all materials) – almost as often as metals and steel. Similar itineraries could be proposed with other guiding lights, such as societal challenges for example. Thus, volume 2, chapter 2 is more specifically devoted to the Climate Change challenge, but the topic is ubiquitous and can also be found in chapter 4 (comparison of materials from the standpoint of their carbon footprint), in chapter 8 (from the standpoint of energy, closely related to HG emissions), and, actually, in many more chapters. The reader can draw his own map of the book and choose his own itinerary. He can even start with a light exploration, focusing on the general highlights and principles of a topic, and then go deeper into detail, only where his interest lies.

Table 1.2  –  Disciplines covered in the various chapters of the book (chapters 1-5 in volume 1). Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature 27

Table 1.3  –  Disciplines covered in the various chapters of the book (chapters 6-9 in volume 1). 28 Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Table 1.4  –  Materials discussed in the various chapters of the book (chapters 1-5 in volume 1). Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature 29

Table 1.5  –  Materials discussed in the various chapters of the book (chapters 6-9 in volume 1). 30 Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

31

Appendix 1. GDP evolution over historical time scales Plotting GDP on historical time scales until the present leads to curves that show exponential growth, like the two figures below related to the US and to the world, cf. Figures 1.15 and 1.16. A large amount of historical GDP data is now publicly available, based on the initial work of Angus Maddison [54, 55, 56].

Figure 1.15 – Evolution of US GDP since the end of the 19th century [57].

Figure 1.16 – Real GDP per capita around the world since AD1 [58].

32

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

This is not particularly interesting in itself, but it demonstrates, once more, that we are using analysis and visualization tools, which have been tailordesigned to show progress in recent times. Before the industrial revolution, a different GDP scale would be necessary, especially a logarithmic scale. Anyway, the presentation tends to overstress GDP as opposed to other socio-economic parameters. Modern econometric tools are not necessarily representative of the past and do not faithfully reflect a time when they had not been invented yet!

Appendix 2. Mandate of the Brundtland commission (UN, December 1983) The 1983 General Assembly passed Resolution 38/161 “Process of preparation of the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond”, establishing the Commission. In A/RES/38/161, the General Assembly: suggests that the Special Commission, when established, should focus mainly on the following terms of reference for its work: (a) To propose long-term environmental strategies for achieving sustainable development to the year 2000 and beyond; (b) To recommend ways in which concern for the environment may be translated into greater co-operation among developing countries and between countries at different stages of economic and social development and lead to the achievement of common and mutually supportive objectives which take account of the interrelationships between people, resources, environment and development; (c) To consider ways and means by which the international community can deal more effectively with environmental concerns, in the light of the other recommendations in its report; (d) To help define shared perceptions of long-term environmental issues and of the appropriate efforts needed to deal successfully with the problems of protecting and enhancing the environment, a long-term agenda for action during the coming decades, and aspirational goals for the world community, taking into account the relevant resolutions of the session of a special character of the Governing Council in 1982;”[6]

11. Bibliography 11.1. Journals Nature Sustainability, a journal of the Nature group launching in January 2018, accessed on 29 September 2017, https://www.nature.com/natsustain/

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

33

Ecological Economics, Elsevier, The journal “is concerned with extending and integrating the study and management of nature’s household (ecology) and humankind’s household (economics).”

11.2. Books, reports Bruno Latour, Face à Gaïa, Huit conférences sur le nouveau régime climatique, La Découverte, 2015 Thomas Graedel, Braden R. Allenby, Industrial Ecology, AT&T, 2002 Robert U. Ayres and Leslie W. Ayres (editors), A Handbook of Industrial Ecology, Edward Elgar, 2009, 680 pages Kenneth Geiser, Materials matter, Towards a Sustainable Materials Policy, Preface by Barry Commoner, The MIT Press, 2001, 479 pages The Little Green Data Book, 2017, The World Bank, published every year, accessed on 3 March 2018, https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/ 10986/27466/9781464810343.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y Michael Ertl, Georg Feigl, Pia Kranawetter, Markus Marterbauer, Sepp Zuckerstätter, Jon Nielsen, Andreas Gorud Christiansen, Peter Hohlfeld, Andrew Watt, Guillaume Allègre, Christophe Blot, Jérôme Creel, Magali Dauvin, Bruno Ducoudré, Adeline Gueret, Lorenzo Kaaks, Paul Malliet, Hélène Périvier, Raul Sampognaro, Aurélien Saussay, Xavier Timbeau, Coordinated by Xavier Timbeau, The imperative of sustainability Economic, social, environmental, independent Annual Sustainable Economy Survey (formerly iAGS), 7th Report, iASES 2019, 168 pages

11.3. Websites, blogs, etc. JSTOR Daily, Sustainability and the Environment, https://daily.jstor.org/ Nachhältigkeit aktuell, Nachhältigkeit Strategie für Deutschland, mailto: [email protected] Yale Climate Connections, Listen, watch, read, act, http://[email protected] France Stratégie, évaluer, anticiper, débattre, proposer, mailto:france-strategie@infos. france-strategie.fr Stockholm Resilience Center, Sustainability Science for Biosphere Stewardship, Stockholm, accessed on 22 February, 2018, http://www.stockholmresilience.org/about-us.html SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Knowledge Hub, http://sdg.iisd.org

11.4. Conferences G-STIC 2017, Brussels 23-25 October, Connecting Technological Innovation to decision making for sustainability

34

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

12. References [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24]

William Shakespeare, As you like it, act II, scene VII, 1623 United Nations, DESA, Population division, http://desa.un.org/unup/ index.html United Nations, World urbanization prospects, the 2005 revision, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, http://www. un.org/esa/population/publications/WUP2005/2005wup.htm World Bank national account data, GDP per capita, http://data.worldbank. org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CD http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/home/ Jean-Robert Pitte, Histoire du paysage français de la préhistoire à nos jours, Texto, 2012 Wolfgang Behringer, A cultural History of Climate, Polityy, 2007, 295 pages Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, File:2000 Year Temperature Comparison.png, Uploaded: 17 December 2005 The Bible, King’s James version, Genesis 1:26/28 and 29. Canticle of the Creatures, in Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, vol. 1, New York-London-Manila, 1999, 113-114 Encyclical letter, ‘Laudato si’ of the Holy Father Francis on care for our common home, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, Rome, 24 mai 2015 Pali Tipitaka, http://www.tipitaka.org/, accessed on 29 September 2017 David Adams Leeming and Margaret Adams Leeming, A Dictionary of Creation Myths, Oxford University Press, current online version 2009 Religions of the World and Ecology. Harvard Press (10 books) Willis Jenkins and Christopher Key Chapple, Religion and Environment, Annu. Rev. Environ. Resour. 2011. 36:441–63 Land cover, land use and landscape, Eurostat, accessed on 7 September 2016, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/File:Main_ land_use_by_land_use_type,_EU,_2009_(¹)_(%25_of_total_area)_YB15.png Biodiversity, biocapacity and better choices, Living Planet report 2012, World Wildlife Fund, Gland, 2012 Working Guidebook to the National Footprint Accounts: 2016, Global Footprint Networks, 2016 The Footprint Network, https://www.footprintnetwork.org/our-work/ ecological-footprint/ H. Reeves, N. Boutinot, D. Casanave, C. Champion, Hubert Reeves nous explique la biodiversité, Le Lombard, 2017, 62 pages Odum, H.T. 1996. Environmental Accounting: Emergy and Environmental Policy Making. John Wiley and Sons, 370 pages J.-P. Birat, Musica Universalis or the Music of the Spheres, Keynote lecture to EMECR-2017 Conference, Kobe, 11-13 Octàber 2017 World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.  27. ISBN  019282080X. D. H. Meadows et al., Club of Rome, The limits of growth, 1972

Chapter 1 – Introduction: Man and Nature

35

[25] Thyssen Krupp Steel Europe, https://www.thyssenkrupp.com/en/company/sustainability/integrated-reporting/ [26] ArcelorMittal, Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2015, http://annualreview2015.arcelormittal.com/#arcelor038 [27] Apple Computer, Supplier Responsibility 2016 Progress Report, http://images. apple.com/supplier-responsibility/pdf/Apple_SR_2016_Progress_ Report.pdf [28] Monsanto, Growing Better Together, http://www.monsanto.com/sustainability/documents/monsanto-2015-sustainability-report.pdf [29] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/CSR_framework_-_value1.jpg [30] Eric Neumayer, Weak vs. Strong sustainability, exploring the limits of two opposing paradigms, Edward Elgar, 2003, 166 pages [31] Stefano Bartolii, Luigi Bonatti, Environmental & social degradation as the engine of economic growth, Ecological Economics, volume 43, Issue 1, November 2002, pages 1-16 [32] https://unfccc.int/essential_background/convention/items/6036.php [33] https://www.cbd.int [34] United Nations, Earth Summit: Agenda 21, The United Nations program of action from Rio, 300 pp, 23 April, 1993, https://sustainabledevelopment. un.org/outcomedocuments/agenda21 [35] http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/ [36] Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme, The Universe Story, From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era--A Celebration of the Unfol, 11 March 1994, Harper San Francisco [37] William F. Ruddiman, Erle C. Ellis, Jed O. Kaplan, Dorian Q. Fuller, Defining the epoch we live in - Is a formally designated “Anthropocene” a good idea?, Science, 3 April 2015 • VOL 348 ISSUE 6230, 38-39 [38] M. S. Cato, Environment and the Economy, Routledge, 2011, 263 pages [39] J. M. Harris, Environmental & Natural Resource Economics, Houghton Mifflin, 2002, 464 pages [40] M. M. Bell, An invitation to Environmental Sociology, Sage, 2012, 383 pages [41] Kenneth A. Gould, Tammy L. Lewis, Twenty Lessons in Environmental Sociology, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2016, Sage Publishing, 512 pp. [42] Tom R. Burns, Sustainable Development: Sociological Perspectives, 1 October 1, 20122, Prepared for the International Sociological Association‘s electronic encyclopedia, Sociopedia. [43] Jean-Pierre Birat, Andrea Declich, Sandra Belboom, Gaël Fick, Jean-Sébastien Thomas, Mauro Chiappini, Society and Materials, a series of regular seminars based on a dialog between soft and hard sciences, Metallurgical Research & Technology, 2015, 112, 501, DOI/10.1051/metal/2015024 [44] Stéphanie Chanvallon. Anthropologie des relations de l’Homme à la Nature : la Nature vécue entre peur destructrice et communion intime. Social Anthropology and ethnology. Université Rennes 2; Université Européenne de Bretagne, 2009. French. , HAL Id: tel-00458244, https://tel. archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00458244v2, Submitted on 13 Sep 2010

36

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

[45] J.-P. Birat et al., Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and related methodologies, in Chapter XII, Treatise on Process Metallurgy, S. Seetharaman editor, 2013 [46] Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), in the Life Cycle Initiative Project, http://www.lifecycleinitiative.org/starting-life-cycle-thinking/life-cycleapproaches/social-lca/ [47] Thomas Graedel, Braden R. Allenby, Industrial Ecology, AT&T, 2002 [48] W.J. Rankin, Minerals, Metals and Sustainability: meeting future material needs, CISRO-CRC, 2011, 440 pp [49] The Pareto principle, see for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Pareto_principle [50] Guezennec, A.G., Huber, J.C., Patisson, F., Sessiecq, J-P., Birat, J.P., Ablitzer, D., Dust formation by bubble-burst phenomenon at the surface of a liquid stee bath, 2004, ISIJ Int.44, 1328–1333 [51] J.-P. Birat et P. Destatte, Prospective industrielle et économie circulaire : concept élégant et réalité complexe, cours-conférence au Collège Belgique, mardi 5 mai 2015, de 17 à 19 heures, Palais provincial de Namur, http://lacademie.tv/conferences/prospective-industrielle-et-economie-circulaire [52] J.-P. Birat, Steel Industry: culture & futures, plenary lecture, ECCC 2014, Graz, 23-24/06/2014 [53] J.-P. Birat, Musica Universalis or the Music of the Spheres, 2018, Matériaux & Techniques 105, 509 (2017) [54] Angus Maddison, Contours of the World Economy and the Art of Macromeasurement 1500-2001, Ruggles Lecture, IARIW 28th General Conference, Cork, Ireland August 2004, 58 pages [55] Jutta Bolt, Jan Luiten van Zanden– The First Update of the Maddison Project – Re-Estimating Growth Before 1820, (2013) [56] Max Roser, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, Hannah Ritchie, Joe Hasell, Jaiden Mispy, Daniel Gavrilov, Research and interactive data visualizations to understand the world’s largest problems, published in “Our world in data”, https:// ourworldindata.org, accessed 21 March 2019 [57] http://visualizingeconomics.com/blog/2010/11/03/us-gdp-1871-2009 [58] Maddison Project, Groningen Growth and Development Centre (GGDC), published online at ourworldindata.org; retrieved from: http://www.ggdc. net/MADDISON/oriindex.htm and https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ maddison-data-gdp-per-capita-in-2011us-single-benchmark?time=1..2016

2

Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science relevant to Sustainability

“Rien ne fait mieux désirer la découverte des métaux qu’un arbre abattu et débité avec une hache en silex” André Leroi Gourhan [1]

Abstract Materials constitute the core of Materials Science (MS), the background against which the present book is written and, as such, MS should be introduced briefly in one of the early chapters. The present chapter should therefore serve as a gentle reminder for most readers of the knowledge they already possess, as a simple introduction for newcomers to the field and as a way to articulate this established knowledge with sustainability topics. Metals and Materials are deeply embedded in the languages that we use to communicate whether in vernacular or in professional contexts. Exploring the etymology of words like metal, material, iron or steel yields some insights into the way different cultures have constructed the modern concepts that these words now designate. Dictionaries and encyclopedia provide the first definitions that people share, before the specialized knowledge of scientists and experts refines them. Metals are first of all chemical elements. The vocabulary of Chemistry proposes a definition of metals as being universal across the Mendeleev table and this does not match the intuition of a metallurgist or a material scientist. Same word but rather different concepts! Materials are the special type of matter from which human artifacts are made: buildings, infrastructure, transportation, machines, industrial plants, etc. Metals have a rather amazing origin, related to cosmology and the evolution of the Universe and more particularly to the stars. This recent understanding of the origin of chemical elements (nucleosynthesis), which dates from George Gamow and Fred Hoyle, gives a very special place to iron among all the elements and this explains why it is so abundant on Earth.

38

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Metals, in direct relationship with their abundance on the planet, have been incorporated in the fabric of life. This is particularly true of iron, which is an essential element of blood (hemoglobin and red cells, called hématies in French 1) but plays many other roles in the body such as transferring oxygen to individual cells through an iron-rich enzyme or participating in the functioning of important organs like the brain or the pancreas. A simple tutorial then reminds or informs the reader of what is usually treated in MS approaches, treatises and textbooks. Keeping in mind that it is necessary to apprehend MS from a sustainability standpoint, which is at the core of the next chapters.

What questions can be answered after reading this chapter? 1. Where do the words used for metals – and particularly for iron – stem from in our modern languages (etymology)? What does that say regarding the age of the concept of metals? 2. How do metals differ when seen through the lenses of chemistry and of metallurgy? 3. Does the distinction between structural and functional materials still hold? 4. What is the connection between metals and life? Between metals and the basic biochemical mechanisms of metabolism? 5. How is the production of metals and of most chemical elements connected with cosmology? 6. What does the metaphor: “iron was forged in the furnaces of the stars” mean? Explain the special status of iron in terms of abundance, among the chemical elements? In this respect, what is the difference between iron and hydrogen? 7. Where is iron segregated in the solar system and in a telluric planet like Earth? 8. Why do iron meteorites have a composition similar to that of the center of the Earth? 9. Why are metals present on Earth (in the crust) as oxides or sulfides, although the metallic speciations (zero-valence metal) were initially more abundant? Are they still abundant somewhere? 10. What is the difference between metallic oxides and sulfides and ores?

1   Note the similarity of words between hemoglobin and hematite, which are both related to the red color, that of blood on the one hand and of the iron mineral in one of its avatars, hematite, Fe2O3, on the other hand.

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 39

11. What general solutions are available to recover the zero-valence metals from their ores? What are the only solutions that are of interest to engineers and industry? Explain why, trying to be open and to stick to a prospective view. 12. Imagine exotic way of producing metals, based on the facts explained in this chapter. Find scientific literature that explored these avenues. 13. Why are Iron and steel paradigmatic materials? 14. Why do material scientists distinguish between physical and mechanical properties? 15. Compare the concepts of life cycle and of value chain. 16. How is the concept of equilibrium, as it stems from thermodynamics, used in materials science and metallurgy? 17. Why are most materials made at high temperature today – at least at higher temperatures today than in the historical past? 18. Are there examples when the “high-temperature production paradigm” does not hold? 19. What is the difference between the equilibrium inside the process reactors used for making materials and the equilibrium with the environment, nature? 20. Why does using high temperatures to produce materials make economic sense in addition to making sense from a physical metallurgy standpoint? Does it make as much sense from an environmental standpoint? More answers to this question are given in chapters 7 and 9. 21. What is the difference between Chemistry and Process Metallurgy (or production of many materials in general)? Hints: kinetics, distance to equilibrium, role of catalyzers, size of reactors, productivity of process reactors, price of substances, etc. 22. For that matter, what is the difference between materials production and the “production” of life? Thus, between materials science and biochemistry in terms of temporality, temperatures and complexity? 23. Can the main features of metals be summarized in a few words? 24. Can the main features of process metallurgy and materials science be summarized in a few words? 25. Do the answers to the previous questions suggest why materials have transcended historical times, i.e. why today’s materials are, at the core, similar to those used in prehistorical times? Some of the questions require looking for information outside of this chapter and of this book.

40

1.

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Introduction

The scope of the present chapter is schematized in Figure 2.1.

Figure 2.1 – Scope of chapter 2.

It focuses on metals and materials per se, the “things-in-themselves”, their noumena 2, leurs choses en soi, das Ding an sich, thus Metals and Materials isolated from their context, as they have been thought, independently of social and environmental issues. Thus, it will not refer to the geosphere, the anthroposphere or the biosphere. 2 A noumenon (νοούμενoν) is the opposite of a phenomenon, which is something that can be apprehended by the senses, by experience. Thus, a noumenon stems directly from the mind, independently of perception. Plato was the first philosopher to introduce this concept, when he talked about the world of Ideas and Forms, where all ideas and forms always existed before they were ever experienced or even thought by man. The concept was further refined by Immanuel Kant and then it became an object of philosophical controversy.

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 41

Economic issues are not completely ignored at this stage, because traditional Materials Science (MS) is an Engineering Science and, as such, answers the needs of industry and is embedded in the economy. Engineers are interested in how things are made in a practical way, even when this approach is, as now, based in science, and in how much making them costs: cost of production or conversion cost and cost of investment. Thus, the core of the chapter is a simple, although highly-concentrated account of materials science, explained in the case of steel, the most important metal in terms of volume and the most complex family of alloys, exhibiting most of the features studied by MS. Prior to the MS tutorial, Metals and Materials will be apprehended from the standpoint of ordinary, vernacular language by referring to the etymology of words like metal, material, iron or steel. This will lead us through dictionary and encyclopedia definitions and eventually to scientific bodies of knowledge, like Chemistry, which presents the modern concept of metals, one of the most prevalent types of elements in the Periodic Table. The discrepancy between this vision of metals by chemists and that of metallurgists will be emphasized: the same word designates different concepts, which, however, are not exclusive or contradictory. There are other issues which need to be handled as well, because they are related to matter, materials and metals and they have been investigated by basic science. One is the matter of the origin of metals and of all elements in a general way: it is a new understanding developed in the middle of the 20th century, which connects them with cosmology and the origin of the universe, a standpoint that Metallurgy does not often consider. The other is the connection of metals with the functioning of living organisms. Biology is not often mentioned in Metallurgy, except in connection with Health and Safety matters related to metals and materials (cf. volume 2, chapter 5), which is actually already an issue that belongs to the sustainability vision.

2. Metals in the vernacular language Etymologically, the word metal comes from the Latin metallum, itself originating from the old Greek μεταλλοη, which meant “mining, from the ground”. The concept, in Rome, designates both metals and minerals, in effect anything that is mined from the ground [2]. This is valid for French and English and many European languages. To avoid Eurocentrism, the discussion should be carried out for a few more languages of the world, which would be an awesome task. As a sign of good will, however, the word iron is shown in 100 languages in Appendix 1. A detailed discussion of the etymology of the words iron and steel is given in Appendix 2. Until the 18th century, only seven metals had been identified since Ancient Times, as pointed out in Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopedia. Metals were symbolically related to the seven planets known at that time, a key element of the European Alchemy of the Middle Ages (cf. Table 2.1). In China and in Japan, the same metals had also been identified and given names made of a single Chinese

42

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

character, except for mercury which was called ‘liquid silver” – a translation of quicksilver – which thus used two characters: in this writing system, the base metal is gold and 金 3, the character for gold, is used to build the characters of the other metals (cf. Table 2.1). More recently discovered metals are written in katakana in Japanese, thus transliterating the English word (e.g. aluminum, アルミ- alumi), while the Chinese language forged new ideograms for them (e.g. aluminum, 铝 - Lu). Table 2.1  –  Metals known in Ancient Times in the Mediterranean, China and Japan. Metal

Planet

Chinese & Japanese

Gold

☉ Sun

金

Silver

☽ Moon ♀ Venus

银銀

Copper Tin

♃ Jupiter

锡鈴

Iron Steel

♂ Mars

铁鉄 钢鋼

Lead Mercury (quicksilver) Zinc

♄ Saturn

铅鉛

☿ Mercury

汞 水銀

铜銅

锌 亜鉛

Definitions of metals are found in dictionaries and encyclopedia, some of which are shown in Appendix 3.

3. Metals as chemical elements and substances Metals are pure elements, which exhibit a number of common specific features that make them easy to use under “ordinary circumstances”: they are heavy – i.e. denser than water, strong – therefore they can be used as tools or vessels, they exhibit a shiny reflective surface – they have been used to make mirrors in the bulk or as a thin surface coating –, and they can be shaped without breaking at room or at higher temperatures – a nice property to make all kinds of artifacts, starting from agricultural tools (plow) and weapons. They also conduct heat and electricity – thus they are not insulators. They also exhibit particular physical properties, which are exploited by product designers in “high-tech” devices, and chemical properties, which are prevalent in biological chemistry and other fields as well. Metals, as elements, are fundamental entities of Chemistry. Elements are chemical entities that cannot be transformed into another element by a chemical reaction. They were defined by André Lavoisier in 1789 and organized in a system by Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869, when he proposed the first version of the periodic table (cf. Figure 2.2).   jīn in Chinese and kin in Japanese.

3

Figure 2.2 – The periodic table of chemical elements showing metals and non-metals [3].

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 43

44

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Today, elements are classified in two broad categories: metals, which comprise most of the elements in the table, and the rest, simply called non-metals. The two domains are separated by a zone extending from Boron (B) to Polonium (Po) (light green in Figure 2.2), some of the elements on that region exhibiting metallic properties (Ge, Sb, Po) and others not (B, Si) and they are therefore sometimes called semi-metals. Non-metals used to be organized in metalloids, halogens (17th column in the table) and noble gases (18th column in the table), which are still shown as such in Figure 2.2. Hydrogen is a non-metal, although it exhibits some metallic properties (the propensity to create a cation, the famous hydrogen proton H+) and maybe more, if research progresses further [4]. Practically speaking, pure metals belong only in a few chemistry laboratories that are specialized in producing pure elements. They can be bought from catalogues of chemical products. Real-life metals are mixtures containing various quantities of so-called impurities, in effect what is called alloys [5]. However, in the mind of the general public and of most scientists and engineers, metals conserve their essential features, when they are not pure. Furthermore, an alloy, i.e. a mixture of a metal with other metals and some non-metals, is still considered as a metal: steel, which is quite different from iron by its properties, is a metal and so is bronze, an alloy of copper and tin that played an essential role at the onset of metallurgy. Metals are solidly embedded in ancient history as the period names of the “Age of Bronze” or the “Age of Iron” indicate, and in the history of technology, which could also be written as the history of metals 4, and in modern times where metals are ubiquitous, not only in the periodic table but also in all the artifacts of the modern anthroposphere and even more so of the technosphere. The Steel community thus claims, rather rightfully, that iron or steel is either present in every existing artifact or, if not, is part of the tools that were used to make them [6]. Metals became so important that scientific approaches took possession of them and created a new field, Metallurgy, which is now part of Engineering Science, thus a completely legitimate scientific endeavor, but one driven with practical applications in mind, actually within the anthroposphere and the technosphere, rather than within nature. Before the scientifization of metallurgy and for most of historical time, it was an Art and Craft, fostered and developed by nameless artisans and craftsmen and eventually by engineers, even before science was able to provide explanatory answers and guidance for change and “progress”. The vision of metals that Metallurgy conveys is quite different from that of Chemistry. Indeed, the two disciplines have rather different agendas in terms of scientific and technical focus. Metallurgy worries only about metals and explores their properties and their uses more deeply: metallurgy is related to the concepts of purity and cleanliness and of the related representations of reality [5]. The two visions are not contradictory. They both contribute to the complexity of our present understanding of the physical world.

4   But also, perhaps even more appropriately, of energy sources and of other, less tangible concepts (financial capital, etc.). Actually, all of these, plus a few more, need to be taken on board at the same time to explain the historical path followed by mankind – which is the purpose of historical research.

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 45

A better definition of metals and of materials, in line with today’s scientific vision, will be proposed further in this chapter, with a focus on Metallurgy and Materials Science. And the whole book will endeavor to identify some kind of intrinsic features that explain why materials have been transcending technological epistemes 5. In volume 2, chapter 8, we suggest that these intrinsic features are ontological in nature, thus deeply related to their philosophy nature.

4. The nature of Materials The kind of matter used to make things, or artifacts as paleoanthropologists would say, is called a material. Metals are materials, but so are the stones (lithic materials, some minerals) used in prehistory and timber and wood, pigments and paint, rubber, ceramics, fabric or textiles – also simply called “material”, sand, gravel, bricks, and more modern materials like plastics, aluminum, fullerene, graphene or stanene. Metals are a special class of materials in the Materials Science narrative. They are unusually ordered, their atoms being organized in a geometric 3-dimensional lattice, and therefore they exhibit a “simple” structure. Thinking of metals in this larger context opens new horizons and offers opportunities, which might have been more difficult to identify in the narrower context of metallurgy. Materials are not simple chemical constructs, but mixtures of simpler matter at various scales: there are called composite materials when the mixing takes place at a fairly large scale. It took some time for their structure to be described, cf. the case of concrete and cement. The Arts and Craft nature of materials is as strong as that of metals. Materials originate either from the biosphere (biomaterials) or from the technosphere (man-made materials, like most metals, most elastomers, all plastics, etc.). Biomaterials are often considered as renewable, a feature first attributed to energy but rapidly extended to materials as well. For fairly arbitrary reasons, the matter of which living organisms are made, like flesh, bones, exoskeletons, skin or cells, is not considered as materials, although imitating them to make artificial materials has become fashionable: the approach is called biomimetics and goes far beyond materials (e.g. biomimetic robots, 3-D printing of skin cells, etc.). Materials carry a special status in the economy. Indeed, they play an important role in the manufacturing process, where they end up being part of a finished product, consumer or investment goods, the functions of which are separated from those of the materials that compose it. Materials provide specific functions which, like the materials themselves, remain mostly hidden from 5   In this book and in other papers, we use the word technological episteme to represent the set of technologies (techniques, arts and crafts) which are used at a particular time in history (and prehistory as well) and which demonstrate a coherent collection of techniques, materials, procedures, practical know-how. Recently, the European Commission has been using the expression Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) to designate something similar. Epistemes are related to the concept of industrial revolutions and of long economic cycles like the Kondratieff cycles.

46

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

the end-user. Materials are used in the trades of designers and manufacturers and, as such are often called an intermediate good. Advertising mostly addresses the end-user and talks of consumer goods and their real or imagined virtues. Except for rather rare institutional advertising campaigns, materials remain in the background of public consciousness. Scientists coined the name of Materials Science the 1960s, when it was intuitively understood that the methods and concepts of metallurgy could be used for a class of materials larger than metals. This was coincidental with the development of completely new materials (semiconductors, polymers, superconductors, superfluids, liquid crystals, Bose-Einstein condensates, foams, etc.), and with the ability to deal theoretically with unusual ones (e.g. soft materials like powders or sol-gel materials (matière molle), bio-sourced materials).

Figure 2.3 – The “material science tetrahedron”.

When metallurgy changed its name to materials science, it incorporated the science of Ceramics, an already developed discipline. As shown in Figure 2.3, the methodological approach, however, is the same as for metallurgy’s. Matter is a more general word than either materials or metals. It encompasses everything “material”, including fluids, fluidic solids like powders and even gases. Matter has also become an area of research and knowledge, investigated by several varieties of physicists, from cosmologists (energy and matter as in General Relativity), to Solid State or Condensed State physicists (Solid State Physics, Liquid State Physics) and to Matter physicists proper, especially Soft Matter scientists [7].

5.

Metals and especially Iron in the Universe [8]

The origin of chemical elements remained a puzzle until the middle of the 20th century and the development of nuclear physics and of cosmology, when it was suggested initially by Gorge Gamow that elements were created very early in the history of the Universe. However, the current theory was proposed by Hans Bethe and perhaps more importantly by Fred Hoyle, who identified the stars as the nuclear furnaces in which all elements are forged: of course, only atomic cores are generated there and the atoms that we are familiar with in ordinary matter formed later, in the explosive phase when they cooled down

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 47

and collected electrons to become neutral. The process is called nucleosynthesis, i.e. the synthesis of atomic cores, nuclei. Iron follows a peculiar storyline in the nucleosynthesis of elements. Stars are nuclear fusion reactors, where nuclei are formed because the density of matter is great enough for nuclear reactions to take place by nucleon addition or fusion of nuclei. Incidentally, huge amounts of energy are also produced, which are radiated out of the star. The theory of nucleosynthesis is too complex to be explained here, but the trend is for heavier elements to be formed as the star ages (it heats up due to gravitational densification and reaches a temperature, expressed in millions of K, that depends on its mass). Stars go through a sequence, which comprises the generation of helium (the present state of the Sun), then of carbon, of silicon and possibly of iron, through the reaction: [((28Si + 4He) + 4He) + … + 4He]… → 56Fe + … Small stars will stop their evolution on the way and never reach the iron stage, depending on their mass. It takes many times the mass of the Sun to enter the club of iron-producing stars and a final temperature greater than 3 x 109 K! [9]. Iron 56Fe is actually the heaviest element that can be generated in this manner, because this peculiar combination of 26 protons and 30 neutrons happens to be very stable, which means that no more energy can be released either by fission or fusion. A massive star will thus have an onion structure with an iron core and layers of Si, O, C, He and H (cf. Figure 2.4). It is interesting to note that astronomers measure the age of stars by the ratio Fe/H [12].

Figure 2.4 – Schematics of the nucleosynthesis of most elements in the core of stars [10].

48

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

From the standpoint of elements, the most abundant ones in the Universe range from hydrogen to iron in the periodic table [13] (Figure 2.5, the vertical axis of which is logarithmic). Heavier elements, which are synthesized by less likely nuclear reactions, are rarer. The over-abundance of hydrogen and helium is due to the fact that they were produced in the primordial nucleosynthesis of the Big Bang. Some of the higher mass elements do not exist in nature and have been created in the laboratory. Even molecules like water were formed in the cosmos and there is a debate regarding whether this is also true of more complex organic molecules, which have been the building blocks of life.

Figure 2.5 – Abundance of elements in the Universe (relative to that of silicon). Notice the logarithmic scale on the vertical axis [11].

The “onion” star may not be the end of the stellar adventure, however, if the mass is large enough, as the increase of the core iron mass will lead to an electron-proton fusion (b-reaction), which transforms protons into neutrons: the star collapses on itself and turns into a supernova, the ashes of which become a neutron star on the one hand and a stream of interstellar matter projected into space on the other hand… Further down this path may even lie a black hole! This is the moment when a large part of the elements heavier than iron are synthesized. New stars will be born from that projected material, as well as their accompanying planets. Our own solar system originated in this way and this is the reason why iron constitutes the major part of the heavy telluric planets, to which our Earth belongs. Figuratively speaking, one may say that the first steelmakers operated billions of years ago (more than 4.6 billions, the age of the Solar System) in the core of the stars and produced all the stock of iron atoms from which we are sampling a minute fraction for our own needs today.

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 49

Figure 2.6 – Element abundance in the Earth as a whole (bulk Earth), in the mantle (bulk silicate earth), the core or the crust (mass proportions) [14].

Metallic iron is the most abundant constituent of planet Earth [14] followed by oxygen, silicon, magnesium, nickel, sulfur, etc. (Figure 2.6). This stems directly from the features of nucleosynthesis. This iron is mainly in a liquid state, alloyed with nickel in the outer core also called the Ni-Fe core (80% Fe, 5% Ni, + Si, S, 135-330 GPa, 3,300-5,800 K, 2,900-5,000 km from the surface), but it is believed that in the inner core itself, under the conditions of temperature and pressure that prevail there (330-365 GPa, 5,500-5,800 K, d = 10-12),

50

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

iron turns into a solid of a peculiar hexagonal structure, more compact than any of the Face-Centered Cubic and Body-Centered Cubic phases with which metallurgists are more familiar [15] (Figure 2.7).

Figure 2.7  –  Structure of the Earth [19].

On top of the core sits the mantle, a thick layer of ultramafic silicates, i.e. silicate anion tetrahedrons (thus oxygen and silicon) with magnesium, iron and calcium cation additions. It is a magma, as the geologists would call it, or a slag, as the metallurgists would. The mantle behaves as a plastic-viscous solid, where convection takes place and may be responsible for plate tectonics, hot spots and magnetism [16]. The crust, which is the outer layer of the planet, concentrates other lighter elements, including oxygen and sulfur, which combine easily with metals. The Earth crust therefore is made of a soup of most of the chemical elements, heavier and lighters ones, combined according to the laws of chemistry and thermodynamics and spatially organized by the workings of geology. Iron is the fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust, at a concentration of 4.6%, behind oxygen, silicon, aluminum and calcium (Figure 2.6). Because various processes have been at work over geological times to transport and concentrate some of these elements, metallogenesis has collected metals in specific locations known as ore deposits, which have later been mined by man, if they have been discovered and deemed worthy of the effort. The most common and useful iron ores are oxides, most noticeably hematite (Fe2O3) and magnetite (Fe3O4). In the ocean, the concentration of Fe is 2.5 ppb, a very low figure [17].

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 51

All the telluric planets of the Solar System (Mercury, Venus and Mars, in addition to Earth and smaller asteroids) have a similar layered structure, with a distribution of silicates in the mantle and of metallic iron in the core. This is due to the mechanism by which the stellar gas condenses [18]. One should also tell the story of cosmic cataclysms where Earth-like planets exploded and scattered their core in the vacuum of space. These metal meteors, with a quenched structure and a composition in iron and nickel similar to that of the Earth’s core, are lost forever in space, except for the few that cross a planetary orbit and make it to the surface of the planet. These are siderites, more simply called iron meteorites today, which have provided man with his first contact with metallic iron, probably since the dawns of time and, as a material for making various artifacts, in the Neolithic (3,500 BC). The special role that iron plays as a core material of past and present societies is directly related to these cosmological and geological storylines, which explain its abundance and, in particular, the large reserves that are still available today as compared to other resources such as oil, for example (cf. Appendix 4). How metals get concentrated in ores, beyond the average composition of the crust, is explained schematically in Figure 2.8 [20]. The process is called metallogenis, a word also used to designate the accumulation of scrap metals in the urban mines of the anthroposphere. Note that “the majority of the World’s ore deposits were formed from hydrothermal fluids moving through the Earth’s crust” [21, 22].

Figure 2.8 – Geological mechanisms of ore genesis for non-ferrous metals – adapted from [24].

52

6.

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Metals, Iron and Life [8]

This section deals mainly with iron in biology. Other metals and trace elements also play specific roles in the mechanisms of life, some of which are explained in volume 2, chapter 5. The abundance of iron on earth has caused it to be incorporated early into the fabric of life and its role is essential in all living things, from microorganisms to the complex systems that mammals and men have become. It is a trace element, as there are approximately 4 g of Fe in the human body, with a concentration of 415 ppm in the blood, 3-380 ppm in bones and 180 ppm in tissue [17, 23]. Biochemists establish a clear relationship between this essential role of iron and its abundance in the Universe. Iron is present in the blood of vertebrates, as the heme of the hemoglobin of the red blood cells (C34H32FeN4O4), which transports oxygen and CO2 between the lungs and the cells. Iron is also present in various enzymes, called non-heme enzymes, which play a role in the exchange of oxygen within the cell by helping free one O atom from an O2 molecule and introduce it into an amino-acid or into other molecules, thanks to a specific Fe-O interaction [25]. Iron is active in the synthesis of DNA, in the scavenging of free radicals or in the metabolic mechanism that releases energy in the cell by using glucose [23]. The prevalent biological redox states of iron are Fe2+ (ferrous), Fe3+ (ferric) and Fe4+ (ferryl). The easy toggle between Fe2+ and Fe3+ makes iron-bearing proteins a biological tool for manipulating individual electrons. Surplus iron is stored in the liver as proteins such as ferritin (several thousands of Fe atoms) or hemosiderin. Bone marrow, where hemoglobin is synthesized, is also rich in iron. A protein called transferrin transfers iron between cells [26, 27] (Figure 2.9 and Appendix 5).

Figure 2.9 – A 3-D representation of the transferrin protein [28].

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 53

Iron is also important in the functioning of the brain, of the ear, of the pancreas, etc. There is a competition for iron in the body between the host and bacteria during an infection and the production of transferrin is then accelerated, thus providing a kind of antibiotic effect. Deficiency in iron leads to anemia and a daily intake is necessary, at the level of 7 g for a man and 11 g for a woman [17] with a yield of roughly 25% compared to the content in the food. The diet in developed countries easily provides the needs of the body, but anemia is prevalent among several million people elsewhere. Iron is therefore central to life on Earth and probably to life in the Universe, if this is indeed an option. Life is also part of ecosystems and iron plays an important role in controlling their equilibrium. For example, recent experiments have shown that the iron (and manganese) content of the sea in its surface layers is directly related to the teeming of life there, through the trophic chain that connects plankton and fish. Indeed, iron is an essential nutrient of plankton, which itself can feed large fish populations. The issue has been seen as a possible solution, both for increasing the fish resource and for controlling CO2 emissions from the ocean, as plankton interacts with this gas through photosynthesis [29, 30, 31, 32]. The matter of controlling Global Warming by using this lever, what is called “climate engineering”, is far from settled, however (cf. volume 2, chapter 2).

7. A metallurgical narrative [33] 7.1.

Basics

An introduction to what is classical physical metallurgy, using simple concepts relevant for a sustainability analysis, can focus on steel as an example, since steel actually constitutes the largest family of alloys known in Engineering and exhibits almost all the important features that metallurgy studies. In this sense, it is a paradigmatic material. A metallurgical narrative about steel can be organized on the four apexes of a tetrahedron (Figure 2.10): • (bottom left) steel is essentially a simple iron-carbon alloy, thus born of thermodynamics equilibriums as exemplified by phase diagrams and hightemperatures, involving often liquid processing, which takes place at equilibrium: equilibrium between hot metal and the coke bed in the blast furnace, between hot metal and BF slag, steel and slag in the converter or the EAF or the ladle, steel and atmosphere – oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen –, equilibrium at the dendrite tips during solidification, etc. The composition of steel and therefore its initial, equilibrium macrostructure, including segregation, are driven by these equilibriums.

54

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

• (bottom) when steel solidifies, kinetics takes precedence and the interesting world of non-equilibrium phases opens up the infinite variety of metallurgical structures, by giving metallurgy an extra-control parameter, actually several, related to heating, maintaining at a constant temperature and then cooling more or less quickly; all of these can moreover take place under stresses. These are called heat treatment, quenching or thermo-mechanical treatments. The outcome is the microstructure of the commercial steel, sometimes quite different from the equilibrium structure of the phase diagrams. That microstructure determines properties in use. Thus, the high-temperature physical chemistry of ironmaking, of steelmaking and of solidification are equilibrium thermodynamics, while the solid-state metallurgy of steels is non-equilibrium metallurgy. The former is responsible for potentially high efficiency in terms of energy and raw material use 6, while the latter gives access to the complexity of grades. • (center right) Steel is more complex than the simple Fe-C diagram, because of the long litany of other elements, most of them in small concentrations in the iron matrix (trace elements, residuals, micro-alloying elements) or present outside of the metal matrix as third phases, i.e. non-metallic inclusions (NMI) and precipitates. The former, NMIs, determine what is called cleanliness, while the latter adds a level of complexity to solid-state metallurgy in introducing specific interactions with dislocations and with the nucleation of new allotropic phases at lower temperatures. • (top) the fourth apex represents an important feature of steel production, i.e. the fact that a steel shop cannot be run as a manufacturing plant in the automotive sector, because the control on the hundreds of steelmaking parameters exhibit natural dispersions that add up to a kind of intrinsic uncertainty. Full computer control of production is presently out of reach, although a sophisticated level of Integrated Intelligent Manufacturing (I2M) has been introduced in steel mills. • (right and left, off the tetrahedron) two extra apexes were added in an effort to avoid over-simplification: basic metallurgy as a theoretical discipline, which lies at the basis of many new developments in steel metallurgy, and coating technology, an essential theme to use steel for long lives and avoid rusting.

6   This is also the main difference with chemistry, which is mostly driven by non-equilibriums and therefore has developed a complex knowledge about catalyzers – a tool that high-temperature processes hardly ever use.

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 55

Figure 2.10 – Schematics of steel metallurgy issues.

7.2.

Materials production

The production of materials involves several steps, which are universal, irrespective of the material. The first step consists in extracting the raw materials and the second step in beneficiating, concentrating or purifying the “ore” – each material industry using slightly different words for it. When the raw material originates from the geosphere, the extraction is carried out in a geological mine, which may be simply a quarry on the ground or an open-pit mine. When the raw material originates from the anthroposphere, it is carried out from an anthropogenic mine, also called industrial mine or urban mine. The distinction is between primary and secondary raw materials. In the case of metals, secondary raw materials are called scrap, thus steel scrap, aluminum scrap, etc. The technology used to concentrate the primary or secondary ores is based on a combination of fragmentation and separation, which generates a flow enriched in the base-material, while the leftover material is concentrated in waste flows. Called Mineral Dressing or Minerallurgy, it is based on mechanical and physical processes, i.e. on carrying out a fragmentation of the mineral phases and then separating them out. This excludes chemical or metallurgical treatments, where chemical mixing at atomic scale is undone. Sophisticated sensors can be used to analyze outflow materials in terms of physical or chemical properties and help separate them in different flows. The treatment plant can be automated, especially if it is a continuous treatment line.

56

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

Mineral dressing is usually performed on the mining site and the mining companies sell merchant ore to their customers: the point is to minimize the transportation of gangue material and to apply the energy-consuming steps of the metal industry to as rich an ore as possible. The same can in principle be said of secondary raw materials, although industry in this sector does not necessarily describe its technology based on the mining analogy. Mining and material industries are usually separate businesses and the interface between them is optimized by a commodity market and by ore prices, which are determined by supply and demand. The mining business has been known for integrating metal producing steps, especially in the case of non-ferrous metals, with more or less success (e.g. Rio Tinto and its copper or aluminum ventures). The metal business has also gone through cycles of upstream integration, also called vertical integration, like ArcelorMittal did in 2006, as it has moved to become a major iron ore producer in the world. The point was to try to avoid the cyclic price oscillations in raw materials, which put the various elements of the value chain under stress. What has been said of metals remains true in the mineral industry: the cement industry is often integrated vertically, while the glass industry is not. Mining and material industries differ by a very important feature, which is their characteristic time, something similar, in the realm of economics and business, to the concept used in process engineering. It is short in the case of Metal production, directly driven by the markets of consumer goods and therefore by the short-term outlook of the economy, while the Mining sector is driven by the long-term investment timescale that a new mine involves: thus 1 year vs. 20 years. The typical composition of ores of various metals and the level of concentration performed in mineral dressing is shown in Figure 2.11. The most expensive metals, like gold, platinum or silver, originate from low-concentration deposits and also need to be concentrated much further than more common metals, like aluminum or iron. Substance

Average Crustal Abundance

Concentration Factor

Al (Aluminum)

8.0%

3 to 4

Fe (Iron)

5.8%

6 to7

Ti (Titanium)

0.86%

25 to 100

Cr (Chromium)

0.0096%

4,000 to 5,000

Zn (Zinc)

0.0082%

300

Cu (Copper)

0.0058%

100 to 200

Ag (Silver)

0.000008%

~1000

Pt (Platinum)

0.0000005%

600

Au (Gold)

0.0000002%

4,000 to 5,000

0.00016%

500 to 1000

U (Uranium)

Figure 2.11  –  Average abundance of metals in the crust and concentration factor in ores [24].

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 57

Mining waste consists of solid waste (the overburden of rocks) and liquid effluents, sometimes mixed in tailings. Tailings constitute a slurry, which is difficult to dry and therefore is stored as a sludge in natural valleys, behind dams. The tailings also concentrate heavy metals in the slime and in discharged water, which has to be treated accordingly. Tailings and the conditions under which they are stored constitute one of the major environmental burdens carried by the metal value chains. The third step of material production is carried out by the material industries themselves. This also goes by various names in metallurgy, like smelting, smelting reduction, or simply metallurgical reduction 7, when high-temperature, pyrometallurgical processes are involved. The production of other materials follows different logics, like the production of polymers, which is a heavy-chemistry technology, that of glass which is somewhat similar to metals’ with mostly the melting part but without the reduction part, or cement making, which is even more similar to metals, as high temperature decomposition of carbonates is involved. Regarding metals, the stable phases in equilibrium with nature, i.e. with the environmental conditions (temperature and pressure) prevailing on Earth in the biosphere and in the upper layers of the geosphere, are oxides or sulfides 8, which are of little use for society. To scavenge the metal from its ores, physics and physical chemistry offer in principle four possible solutions: • the metallurgical solution, which involves a reducing agent to capture the oxygen, or purely physical solutions shown in Figure 2.12 in the case of iron and iron oxide:

Figure 2.12 – How to recover iron from oxides by pure physical means?

7 The word reduction comes from early chemistry, when it was noticed that the weight of metal produced was reduced compared to the weight of the ore: the difference is due to oxygen, although it took some time to make that clear! 8 Sulfides are not used directly to recover metals: they are usually roasted, i.e. heated up in an oxidizing atmosphere and thus transformed into oxides.

58

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

• thermal decomposition, which, under 1 bar, needs the very high temperature of 3404°C. It can be reached for example in a solar furnace, but then the challenge would be to avoid the recombination of Fe and O when the reaction products cool down. A separation by mass spectroscopy is in principle possible [34], but hardly practical with existing technologies. This solution has never seriously been used as the basis for a technology. • vacuum decomposition, i.e. the spontaneous decomposition of oxide due to low oxygen partial pressure (10–87 bar), would necessitate a level of vacuum lower than any achieved in a laboratory and much below that of outer space (3⋅10–7 bar). This also rules it out of technology options. • electrolytic decomposition, or electro-reduction, which becomes possible with only 1.28 V, a low voltage under practical conditions. Figuratively speaking, it can be said that electrons (e–) are the reducing agents. Electrolysis is commonly used in industry to produce metals, aluminum, copper, zinc, tin, magnesium and others. Electrolysis can operate at room or at high temperatures. It can recover metallic metals from any kind of salts, preferably the ones that are water soluble, but also from oxides. Electrolysis of iron oxide has been proposed and demonstrated at pilot scale in the ULCOS program [35]. High temperature metallurgy operates close to thermodynamic equilibrium. This is true in most process reactors used in pyro-metallurgy, thus sinter plant, blast furnace, oxygen converters, ladle metallurgy reactors and solidification in continuous casters in the case of steel. The process reactors used in other metallurgies behave in the same way and so do the high temperature reactors of other materials. There may be slight deviation from equilibrium, like in a blast furnace, where the parameter Ω finely follows the behavior of the reactor [36], or during solidification, where supercooling or supersaturation play an important role. But at a macro-level, equilibrium makes it possible to calculate what happens in industrial reactors very accurately and, moreover, gives orders of magnitude of necessary amounts of energy. This is also one of the basic reasons why pyro-metallurgy is very efficient in terms of energy and mass balance (cf. chapter 9). Metals and many other materials are therefore produced with high efficiency thanks to the operation of the process reactors in the high temperature region, where thermodynamic equilibrium governs physical chemistry. Then the material is quenched and returns to normal pressure and temperature conditions, under which it is again fully out of equilibrium with “nature”. What becomes important then, is that the return to equilibrium is very slow compared to the timescales that technology needs for its artifact to be sustainably usable: if oxidation is too rapid, as it was in cars in the 1960s, then technological solutions would be developed to slow down the kinetics of return to nature equilibrium. This is why one can say that the thermodynamic equilibrium at play in the hightemperature reactors of the technosphere is used to fight the return to equilibrium with nature of metals and other materials: equilibrium vs. equilibrium! It is all a matter of time, temporality and time scales.

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 59

7.3.

Material properties

As an applied and engineering science, metallurgy focuses on properties of materials used in engineering applications. They cover a huge range of categories, related to various disciplines: physics, chemistry, cosmology of nucleosynthesis, biology, mechanical metallurgy and mechanical engineering, corrosion resistance, utilization of the material in manufacturing technology (mise en oeuvre) and use of the material inside engineering structures and artifacts – the latter two categories covering a very diverse and virtually infinite reality. In this way, material and steel properties in particular are a social construct. Only a few of these properties are mentioned here. Table 2.2  –  Physical properties of iron [37]. Element classification metal Atomic Number

26

Atomic Weight

55.845

Melting point

1811 K (1538°C, 2800°F)

Boiling point

3134 K (2861°C, 5182°F)

Ionization energy

7.902 eV

Electronegativity

1.83

Oxidation states

−2, −1, +1, +2, +3, +4, +5 +6

# of stable isotopes

4

Fe54 Fe56 Fe57 Fe58

Electron shell configuration

1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d6 4s2

because of orbital 3d, Fe is called a transition metal

Density (solid, liquid)

7.874 6.98 / 7.02

Similar to volumetric mass density ρ, i.e. g/cm3 (room temperature & melting point: solid/liquid)

Heat of fusion

13.81 / 247.232 / 59.1

kJ∙mol–1 / kJ∙kg–1 / cal∙g–1 or Th∙t–1

Heat of vaporization

340

kJ∙mol–1

Crystal structures, allotropes

BCC, FCC, HCP

(ferrite at low (α) and high temperatures (δ), austenite (g), structure at the Earth’s planetary core (ε))

Curie point

1043 K / 770 C

Iron is one of the 3 elements which exhibit ferromagnetism (with Co and Ni)

Fe56 constitutes 91.754% of naturally occurring isotopes

Pauling scale

The physical properties of element iron (Fe) are shown in Table 2.2. Iron is a fairly refractory material, which requires high temperatures for pyrometallurgical reduction. Its electronegativity is such that native iron does not

60

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

exist on Earth. It is fairly heavy (density: 7.8) because of its “tight” electronic cloud: its density is fairly constant across ordinary steels 9 and only high levels of alloying or of foreign particle additions can change it. Most of these properties depend on composition, so that they are affected by alloying. 36%-nickel alloy Invar thus has a density of 8.1. The evolution of the melting point can be read directly from equilibrium diagrams. Pure iron under ordinary pressure exhibits two allotropic forms and, because ferrite is stable at high and room temperatures, two phase changes. These structures carry over to steels, except when alloying is high (e.g. silicon steels are purely ferritic, while 304 stainless steel is purely austenitic). Many of steel metallurgy’s peculiar features are related to these allotropes of iron toggling back and forth as a function of temperature: indeed, most other metals have only one crystal form, except in 10. The stiffness (or rigidity) of steel, measured by its Young’s modulus, 200 GPa, is high compared to most other structural materials [38] (aluminum: 69; highstrength concrete: 30; glass: 50-90; titanium: 110; copper: 117; carbon-fiber reinforced composite: 181; wood: 11; nylon: 2-4; rubber: 0.01-0.1). More refractory metals than iron are stiffer, e.g. beryllium: 287; molybdenum: 330; tungsten: 400. Carbon is also stiffer in diamond (1050-1210) or in its new avatars like nanotubes (1000) or graphene (1050). Carbynes 11 are the stiffest materials identified at the present time (32,000). Stiffness is the property that keeps steel-structure buildings from swinging in the wind, contrary to the tips of aircraft wings, or make a vehicle behave like an intuitively “solid” material, i.e. not being deformed in curves, for example. Poisson’s ratio is 0.29 and the shear modulus 79 GPa. Thermo-physical and hydrodynamic properties of steel are given in Table 2.3 [39,40] at room temperature mainly. Physical parameters are thermal conductivity, heat capacity and volumetric mass. They are combined in two composite parameters, thermal diffusivity 12 and thermal effusivity 13.

9  Ordinary carbon steels are low-alloyed compared to many non-ferrous metallurgies. Moreover, the usual alloying elements have densities close to that of iron so that mitigating the overall density, according to a simple law of mixture, is not very effective. However, adding light elements like aluminum or boron, as elements or as 3rd phases (e.g. B2 Fe-Al intermetallics, or TiB2 dispersion-strengthened) does lead to significantly reduced densities, although in the laboratory at the present time. 10   One of which (g-tin) is non-metallic and creates integrity issues when it forms in a matrix of metallic b-tin (tin plague). 11   Carbyne is any compound, the molecular structure of which includes an electrically neutral carbon atom with three non-bonded electrons, connected to another atom by a single bond. 12   The coefficient of the heat transfer equation, linking temperature evolution to the Laplacian of temperature, thus characterizing the “speed” of heat propagation under steady-state conditions. 13   It characterizes the intensity of the heat flux instantaneously exchanged when two solids of the same temperature suddenly come in contact or, again, the temperature reached immediately at the interface.

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 61 Table 2.3  –  Thermo-physical properties of solid & liquid iron [41,42, 43]. Thermal conductivity – solid

Pure Fe: 80.4, steel: 50-25

W·m−1·K−1 (at liquidus temperature)

liquid 33 Heat capacity/specific 0.450 – 25.09 heat 1.411 × 10−5

liquid 6.095 × 10−6 Thermal effusivity

13.310 x 10

3

liquid 13.336 x 103 Prandtl number (liquid steel)

5 10 – 10

Viscosity liquid

-0.6074 + 2493/T (0.76918)

–3

–1

Surface tension liquid 1.92 + 3.97 (T-TL) Electrical resistivity liquid

C p , in J·g–1·K–1 – J·mol–1·K–1 (room temperature) J·mol–1·K–1 (at liquidus temperature)

liquid 43.001 Thermal diffusivity – steel

k, λ, or κ, in W·m−1·K−1 (room temperature-1000°C)

α=

λ , in m2/s (room temperature) ρC p

Same unit λρC p , in J m–2 s–1/2 Same unit µ λ C   p µ ,=in mPa·s – (at liquidus temperature) g L , in N·m–1

1.027 + 2.209·10–4 T 1 , in µΩ·m σ

Iron, like most metals, is a good heat conductor, as shown in the value of thermal conductivity (50 W·m−1·K−1), although much less so than silver (430), copper (390) or aluminum (205) – because of the structure of its electronic conduction bands. Because of its effusivity, steel like most metals, feels cold at room temperature, contrary to insulating materials. Finally, the Prandtl number of liquid steel, which represents the ratio of heat exchanged by convection and by conduction, is small compared to that of water (6,99), the liquid which serves as an intuitive reference. Whenever heat-related flows (thermal convection) are important in liquid steel, water is not a very good simulation fluid, even though this point is not often acknowledged. The viscosity of liquid steel is very similar to that of water (1.002 mPa·s at 20°C). This is the major reason why water models “work” and give intuitive insight into what happens inside opaque liquid steel long before CFD simulations started to present realistic pictures of flows. Mechanical properties describe how metals react in terms of strength (yield strength, tensile strength) and ductility (elongation, reduction of area), from room temperature to all the intermediate temperatures that it is going through during processing (creep, high temperature ductility and brittleness, hot shortness, etc.), as a function of time and strain rate, until and including fracture (toughness, Charpy impact resistance (résilience)) or under cyclic conditions (fatigue),

62

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

corrosive environments (corrosion cracking) or combinations of those (stress corrosion fatigue). The mechanical properties of pure iron are mostly disconnected from those of steel, the description of which constitutes a large part of steel metallurgy. Resistance to corrosion is a special property per se and the subject of a particularly long chapter of steel metallurgy (cf. chapter 5). The search for solutions has led to the development of the family of stainless steels, of coated steels and of weathering steels. Steels of different shapes, thickness and compositions are assembled together and with other materials in industrial artifacts, a process called manufacturing. Welding is the most common joining technology, which comes in many variants (e.g. brazing) and with myriad welding tests, but gluing, clenching, etc. are also used in complex and sophisticated ways. Many other in-use properties are associated with specific applications of steel and thus characterize features of steel solutions: resistance to fire, resistance to earthquakes, machinability, microwavability 14, etc. Functional materials/steels exhibit properties related to their very focused function, like electricity generation through photovoltaic coatings, self-cleaning ability and catalytic photo-oxidation caused by an anatase (TiO2) layer coating, aesthetic functions, etc. Surface properties are also of interest, for example to allow smooth lubrication in contact with a forming tool or to provide reinforced surface resistance.

7.4.

Utilization of steel in manufacturing and life cycle of steel

All human artifacts are either made of steel or are made from tools made of steel. Secondary processing in a manufacturing plant where steel is used involves myriad ways of cutting, shaping, finishing, painting, joining steel pieces together or with other materials: much technology is involved, old and new, and the development of new steel grades today includes this dimension. Research has taken over this field from pure empiricism. Later, the life-in-use depends on the life of the parts 15 but also on their maintenance – like the painting of the Eiffel tower or the anti-fouling treatment of ships. A steel building can be refurbished and used for different purposes, while keeping the steel structure intact. Referring to the 3 R philosophy, these life-in-use practices are part of the first “R”, Reduce. The last step in the life cycle is the end-of-life, where steel has a special status, as it is the most recycled material in the world: goods, either cell phones,

  The ability of a tin can (tinplate can) to be used in a microwave oven.   For example, bearings used in automobiles hardly ever break any longer, while in the 1970s and 1980s they needed to be changed during the normal life of a car, which was also shorter! This is due, in part, to the quality of bearing steels for races, balls and cylinders. 14 15

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 63

cars or industrial buildings, are dismantled, sorted, shredded (in a shredder or hammer mill) or cut (in a shear or knife mill) and then the steel stream becomes a secondary raw material, which will be used again to make new steel in an EAF. One important property of steel makes it easy to sort it out and separate it from other materials, its ferromagnetism. This life-cycle dimension of steel, which is also a supply-chain and resource chain approach, introduces societal dimension in speaking about the metal. It is an integral part of its metallurgy and, actually, ought to include all the dimensions of sustainability [44]: a new extended discipline known as environmental or sustainable metallurgy is presently being structured, particularly in the present book. A more detailed discussion of life cycle thinking (LCT) as related to materials and steel is presented in more detail elsewhere [45] and in volume 2, chapter 8.

7.5.

Making, shaping & forming technologies – material concepts used outside of the steel sector and in neighboring ones

Steel is not simply handled by the steel sector and its value-chain, defined in a narrow economic sense, but also by other economic sectors and is the subject of curiosity and research by academia. At an industrial level, powder metallurgy [46], foundry or die casting [47] and tube & pipe production are not usually considered as part of the steel sector 16. They produce both steel and pig iron besides non-ferrous metals. Their toolbox of process technologies is sometimes quite different from the steel sector’s as they explore physical domains that are not those of a steel mill 17: for example, while classical foundry carries out solidification in the same parameter brackets as steel production, specialized techniques stray away from them 18, such as single crystal production of turbine blades, precision molding, which produces nearnet-shape or net-shape moldings, or injection molding. While welded tubes are produced from steel coils, some tubes are made directly from the melt, such as seamless tubes, by combined centrifugal continuous casting and Mannesmann tube-piercing and rolling, or as centrifugally cast tubes of large dimensions, a technique which is akin to foundry.

16   They are thus not included in vital statistics in terms of production or turnover, as published by worldsteel, Eurofer or the OECD, for example. 17   The evolution of steel production in the 20th century has been focused on standardizing a few sets of technologies and thus in shutting off wide areas of physical parameters, which should be kept in mind for the sake of thoroughness and for keeping all future options of the sector open. 18   The purpose is to avoid creep due to grain boundaries and thus to improve high-temperature mechanical properties significantly.

64

Sustainable Materials Science - Environmental Metallurgy

There are other areas connected to specialized technologies, which exist in the netherworld between very small industrial activity and research: • Mechanical Alloying, but also mechanical solid reduction, uses fragmentation of powders down to nanometric dimensions, to produce materials out of thermodynamic equilibrium. It is actually now a technique used extensively to produce nanostructured materials. • Thixocasting, rheocasting and thixoforming handle solid and liquid mixtures in the solidification interval. The challenge of controlling such a narrow temperature gap is the reason for its confidential development. The advantage is high precision in the geometry of casts, as solidification shrinkage is reduced. These technologies are mostly used in non-ferrous applications (aluminum, magnesium) but work is continuing on stainless and carbon steels. • Spray Casting, developed by professor Springer and now Sandvik-Osprey of South Wales, projects supercooled liquid droplets on a cooled substrate. A low material yield is its main challenge, but it is used to make some special niche copper alloys, like prematerial for low temperature Nb3Sn superconductors (CuSn). Applications to steel seem to have been shelved for the time being. • Rapid Solidification produces amorphous metal, foils, wires or powders, by quenching the liquid into a viscous state. The amorphous phase can only be obtained with products of small thickness or diameter. Applications in the case of steel or iron are small confidential niches (safety tags in shops). • Production of metal foams was a hot subject in the 1990s and, indeed, foams of most common metals were produced in the laboratory. The material is gradually finding commercial applications, for example aluminum foam in the bottom of the door in a Citroën Aircross concept car [48]. Steel foam production is concentrated on stainless steels. The challenge is to produce a material with reproducible and uniform geometry and properties and the only present method for making regular, non-stochastic foams is a foundry technology of CTIF. Its advantages are a low density (5 to 25% of the pure bulk metal) and a high resistance to bending. Cf. Figure 2.13.

Figure 2.13 – Porous foams made by FECRALY, stainless steel, nickel, nickel alloys, copper, brass, steel, titanium castings – 10 - 30 & 60 ppi – courtesy of Selee Corp [49].

Chapter 2 – Introduction to aspects of Metallurgy and Materials Science 65

Finally, at the boundaries of steel metallurgy lie, on the high-carbon side, pig-iron and its many variants, like lamellar graphite or spheroidized graphite and, on the high-nickel side, superalloys. Pure iron, at the boundary of extra purity, is not really a steel variant – although some very pure iron is known as “Armco iron” [50] – but rather a material standard used for applications in physics; it is produced by electrolysis or chemical reactions in the solid state and in the laboratory. A number of new metallurgical concepts, old or recent, have made some inroad in steel technology, although at the level of technological forecasting (prospective) and as weak signals rather than confirmed trends yet. Superplasticity and its use in the steel sector was one of them but it never turned into commercial reality, although there has been renewed interest at Stanford and the Livermore Laboratory in connection with ultra-high carbon steels, which have their origin in Damascus steel [51]. More recent concepts are architectured materials [52,53], nanomaterials strongly connected to steel and additive manufacturing – familiarly known as 3-D printing.

7.6.

Steel grades

The iron-carbon diagram of Figure 2.14 is given for reference, for its historical importance and for its symbolic value, as this simple concept summarizes much of steel metallurgy. It sets the range of compositions of steel as opposed to pig iron (