5.5.1 Substitution of materials

Course subject(s) Module 5. Resource efficiency by product design, production and substitution of materials

Substitution of critical raw materials is a very different way in dealing with shortage of these materials. In this video Maud Rio will introduce substitution of materials and will give an example with LED-lights.

Main takeaways

  • Several CRMs might be used for the same application.
  • Using less critical materials may mitigate the issue of CRM.
  • Substitution may imply a transfer of impact from one material to another.
  • Example of lamp is given.

Some extra reading if you’d like to explore this topic further:

Pavel, C.C., Marmier, A., Alves Dias, P., Blagoeva, D., Tzimas, E., Schleicher, T., Jenseit, W., Degreif, S., Buchert, M., European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 2016. Substitution of critical raw materials in low-carbon technologies: lighting, wind turbines and electric vehicles. Publications Office, Luxembourg.

Creative Commons License
Waste Management and Critical Raw Materials by TU Delft OpenCourseWare is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://online-learning.tudelft.nl/courses/waste-management-and-critical-raw-materials/.
Back to top