Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Tungsten – Uses, Prices, and Production


This blog highlights information and data I have found on the Internet related to tungsten uses, prices, and production.   Key Blog objectives are to present a tungsten 2018 global production amount and the amount of global revenues represented by the sale of this production.

Uses.  Tungsten’s high melting point (the highest of any metal) and its anti-corrosive, unreactive nature accounts for most of its uses.  These uses include:  in electrodes at high temperatures; as filaments to generate light by electric current passing through the filaments; combined with metals to form highly resistant, strong alloys; and in electrical equipment to meet heat-resistant, conducting needs.   The largest use of tungsten is in its combination with carbon to form tungsten carbide, an extremely strong compound, which is used in cutting tools and drills in many industries.

Prices.  Tungsten does not appear as an element in nature but combined with other elements.  The minerals scheelite and wolframite account for most of the source of tungsten.   These minerals are mined and chemically processed to form ammonium paratungstate (APT), which is sold by the processors to customers who further process (by reacting with hydrogen) the ATP to obtain the tungsten element.   The average 2018 global price of high-grade ATP was about $33,000 per metric ton (mt).

Production.  Estimates are that approximately 81,000 mt of ATP was produced globally in 2018.  With the ATP average price of $33,000 per mt, this gives a 2018 global tungsten revenue of $2.7 billion (81,000 mt times $33,000 per mt).


Friday, July 12, 2019

Chemical Processing of Plastic Packaging Waste


About 300 million metric tons (mt) of plastic waste are believed to have been generated globally in 2018.  And about 45 to 50% (135 to 150 million mt) of this 300 million mt of plastic waste are estimated to be plastic packaging waste.    Unfortunately, a large amount of this 135 to 150 million mt of plastic packaging waste was not recovered (recycled) (for example only about 15% in the United States and about 40% in Europe).  One of the restraints on the recycling (recovery) is that only some of the plastic package waste (that portion having the needed properties such as uniformity), can be recycled using mechanical processes.   Much of the rest of the plastic packaging waste does not have the needed uniformity and other properties to be mechanically process and recycled.   

In order to recycle the rest (the amount not able to be mechanically recycled), the plastic needs to be chemically recycled.  In generally, when the term chemical recycle is used, it refers to one of these three methods:

1.      Purification – dissolving the plastic into solution followed by purification into components, which then can be used to form new plastics;
2.      Decomposition – de-polymerization of the plastic by various means into the monomers, which then can be used to form new plastics; and
3.      Conversion – using pyrolysis to convert the plastic packing waste into oils or gasification to convert plastic wastes into hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide (syngas), which then can be used to form new plastics.

Unlike in mechanical recycling, which eventually will mechanically damage the plastic after repeated recycling, chemical recycling of the newly formed plastics can continue indefinitely.

The Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners has produced a 2018 report that provides an excellent review of chemical recycling and identifies dozens of companies that have developed various purification, decomposition, and/or conversion processes for recycling plastic packaging waste.  Click here to read the report (PDF file).

Estimates can be found on the Internet that the plastic packaging waste that is not recycled could be converted into new plastic (from the components, monomers, or syngas produced via the chemical recycling process) with a market value of $80 to $120 billion.   Also, reusing plastic packaging waste as new plastic products avoids using fossil fuels to make the needed products, reducing carbon dioxide emissions.  And, recycling the packaging prevents the entry of the plastic into the environment as waste.  So, for these reasons, as well as for the technical advances that are being made in chemical recycling, as indicated in the Center for the Circular Economy Report, much interest is being generated in chemical recycling of plastic wastes.