Clean Technologies - Brochure

Focus on clean technologiesDenis GoffauxChief Technology Officer UmicoreWe invest some 6% of our revenues in research and develop-ment. Our innovation in materials and processes is at the heart of our success and plays a key role in our contribution to sustain-able development. This guide provides an overview of some of the key areas where we are making a real difference.“Umicore aims to close the materials loop. Our hi-tech materials offer society a comprehensive platform of energy-intelligent solutions which allow us to produce, store and renew energy in a sustainable way. Our strategic vision of sustainable development is a common thread through all of our research and development activities.”Umicore and materials go hand in hand. But did you know that without the metals-based materials we develop, many ordinary things you normally take for granted simply would not exist in such abundance?Umicore has been dealing with metals for more than 200 years: we’re a true leader in our knowledge of metals. This expertise allows us to offer many materials and services that offer clear environmental benefits. These can range from materials used in rechargeable batteries that are found in hybrid and electric cars to materials for reducing air pollution as well as complex recycling technologies.Umicore focuses on clean technologiesDID YOU KNOW …… Umicore products can even be found on Mars?Our germanium substrates were used as the base material for the solar panels used on NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, the mobile robots which were sent to explore the red planet in 2003. Initially, the mission of Spirit and Opportunity was to last only 90 Mars days (92 days back here on earth) but both robots continued to be operational many times longer. Spirit kept operating until March 2010 while Opportunity was still going strong in 2011 This was partly thanks to the solar cells, a real show of force on a planet where temperatures change by up to 100 °C within one dayGenerating energy Traditional sources of energy such as oil, coal and gas are limited and pollute our environment. Solar energy offers a great alternative. New materials and technologies are making the adoption of photovoltaic electricity generation more accessible.As the world leader in germanium, a very rare material, Umicore has been active in this area for quite some time: our extremely thin and pure germanium substrates (or wafers) are very popular as the base material for solar cells in space, where size, efficiency and power are crucial. These substrates are used in the majority of the satellites launched today ….These rare germanium materials are now also finding a use here on earth: by using lenses or mirrors, sunlight can be concen-trated on a tiny germanium wafer. This requires a lot less germanium and limits the cost difference with silicon, which is cheaper but less efficient.Umicore also produces key materials for thin film solar cells and we even offer recycling services to the producers of some types of solar panels.Solar cell materialsGermanium substrates constitute the building blocks of very efficient solar cells which are primarily used in satellite solar panels. Germanium-based solar cells are up to twice as efficient in converting solar power into electricity than the traditional, silicon-based, cells. Other layers of materials are “grown” on top of the germanium substrate: they each convert part of the solar spectrum into energy. Visit the Umicore Energy Materials websiteDID YOU KNOW …… Umicore is investing in power plants? Our SolviCore joint-venture with Solvay develops the ‘heart’ of the fuel cell, the reactor where hydrogen reacts with oxygen. The fuel cell operates likes a miniature power plant.Generating energy Fossil fuels not only pollute the environment, they are also likely to run out in the not too distant future. Hydrogen could be a good alternative: it is abundantly available and offers the perspective of allowing significant reductions in CO2 emissions.Fuel cells are like electrical batteries which continuously charge themselves, if fed by fuel – hydrogen and oxygen. The electric-ity produced by fuel cells can be used to power cars and other transport of the fu-ture. Fuel cells are clean - the only product coming out of the exhaust is pure water There are still plenty of practical barriers to large scale commercial use but the future is promising. We might soon be able to commute to work or travel to our favorite holiday destination knowing that the envi-ronment stands to benefit.Fuel cell materials Hydrogen (H2) enters the ‘negative’ side of the fuel cell stack, while oxygen (O2) enters the ‘positive’ side. Both sides are separated by a membrane covered with the (precious) metals-based cata-lyst material, which causes hydrogen to split into positively-charged protons and negatively-charged electrons. The electrons are not able to pass through the membrane and need to travel to the other side via an external chan-nel, creating electricity along the way (the movement of negatively-charged electrons). At the ‘positive’ side of the fuel cell, oxygen, assisted by the cata-lyst material, receives protons and elec-trons, creating water (H20) as the only end product.Visit the Solvicore websiteHybrid cars rely both on a traditional combustion en-gine and an electric motor supported by a powerful rechargeable battery. The engine provides most of the vehicle’s power, while the electric motor provides auxiliary power, for exam-ple for accelerating, pass-ing or even low-speed/low acceleration driving. This combination allows for a smaller, more efficient en-gine to be used. There is no need to charge the battery externally as the electric power is generated by the engine or from regenera-tive braking.DID YOU KNOW …… Batteries are getting bigger?A typical mobile phone might contain 10 grammes of Umicore’s cathode materials. A hybrid car will use a battery containing some 5 kilos of these materials. An electric car on the other hand requires about 30-50 kilos of these materials in a battery that can weigh up to 200 kilos Storing energy It wasn’t that long ago that electric cars were a distant dream. Today they are becoming reality due to advances in battery technology.The rapid technological development of rechargeable batteries – particularly lithium-ion – has allowed applications such as mobile phones to become not only a lot more powerful but also more compact. Umicore is a world leader in the materials technology that has made these advances in lithium-ion battery technology possible.Our innovation has enabled the batteries to reach higher and higher levels of performance. These batteries are now being able to be used in hybrid and electric cars, which have more exacting require-ments in terms of the battery’s weight, power and resistance to shock and heat.In this regard Umicore is also able to close the loop: old mobile phones – batteries included – can be recycled using our recycling technology. Rechargeable battery materialsVisit the Umicore Energy Materials websiteThe catalytically active material is integrated into a porous substrate through which the exhaust gases (hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide) flow. The precious metals subsequently react with the exhaust gases, rendering them harmless.Rechargeable battery materialsAnd once more Umicore’s materials enjoy a prominent role: catalysts using metals such as platinum, rhodium and palladium enable harmful emissions from combustion engines (nitrogen oxide, organic molecules and carbon monoxide), to be rendered largely harmless.Umicore has been developing, producing and engineering catalysts for a wide range of engines since the 1960s and is one of the world’s top producers. Increasingly stringent emission regulation throughout the world and encompassing new categories of vehicles such as trucks and buses places a heavy premium on technologi-cal development. Clean air is our business Gasoline and diesel cars are becoming cleaner and cleaner. This is not only because of fuel efficiency but also because of large-scale introduction of automotive catalysts in the past twenty years. These catalysts can now be found in almost any car.Automotive catalysts DID YOU KNOW …… Clean air is our business?The equivalent of about 10% of the revenues of Umicore’s Automotive Catalyst business is used to fund research & development. One in every six employees in this activity is involved in research: it comes as no surprise, then, that Umicore makes new technological breakthroughs every yearVisit the Umicore Automotive Catalysts websiteBase metals like copper, nickel and lead are used to recover or ‘collect’ precious and other secondary metals as part of our complex pre-cious metals recycling and refining operation. Pre-cious metals like palladium, platinum, rhodium gold or silver connect themselves to copper just like special metals like indium, bis-muth, selenium or telluri-um are found in conjunction with lead.Visit the Umicore Precious Metals Refining websiteDID YOU KNOW …… Umicore is the world’s biggest recycler of precious metals?At our plant in Hoboken, Belgium, we treat some 350,000 tonnes from around 200 types of waste and end-of-life materials every year. From this we can recover 17 metals ranging from precious metals such as gold and platinum to specialty metals like indium and tellurium.Recovery of scarce metals Umicore is the world’s leading recycler of precious and rare metals. As a company we recover and recycle 25 different metals from a huge variety of different waste streams and end-of-life products.Our recycling operations can be found across all of our activities and as a company we do all we can to “close the loop” by recycling materials from customers, other industries and used products. The world is becoming increasingly dependent on certain metals, particularly in modern applications such as portable electronics or electricity generation from solar power. Recycling is becoming increasingly important not just for its environmental benefits but also because it helps keep these vital metals available once their applications have reached the end of their life. Metals are wonderfully adapted to recycling as they lose none of their intrinsic qualities through the recycling process: this means that they can be recycled again and again and again….RecyclingUHT technology will have other applications too. For example, Umicore can re-cover rare-earth elements as neodymium from end-of-life nickel metal hydride batteries. REELi-Ion & NiMH batteriesUmicore technologyRecycling plantPortableelectronics(Hybrid) electric vehicleClean AirVisit the Umicore Battery Recycling websiteDID YOU KNOW ……Umicore’s process is environmentally friendly?Umicore’s battery recycling operation uses very little external energy. The batteries contain their own energy – including the plastic housing and this energy is used to increase the efficiency of the process. Advanced gas cleaning technology also ensures that no harmful dioxins or volatile organic compounds are producedClosing the battery loop Umicore has developed a unique technology that enables the recycling of end-of-life rechargeable batteries in an efficient and environmentally sound way. The Ultra High Temperature technology enables Umicore to treat batteries from portable electronic equipment as well as hybrid and electrical vehicles. The process extracts metals in a clean and efficient way. Among them are cobalt and nickel. These metals are then further refined by and find their way back into new batter-ies – an example of Umicore’s “closed loop” approach. The most significant opportunity for this business is the recycling of spent batter-ies from hybrid and electric cars. These vehicles are set to make up a far greater proportion of the cars on our roads in the coming years. Also, while a phone battery weighs a few grammes, an e-vehicle bat-tery can weigh around 200 kilos. Environ-mental regulations are becoming tighter around the world and in some areas the collection and recycling of such batteries is already subject to legislation.Visit the Umicore jobs websiteUmicore operates some 80 production sites around the world, employing 14,500 people. We are constantly looking for talented people to join us including materials scientists, chemists, engineers, economists, computer experts, technical and administrative employees and operators. Are you interested? Please check out our jobs website www.umicore.jobs..Umicore Registered OfficeBroekstraat 31 rue du MaraisB-1000 • Brussels, BelgiumTel.: +32 (0)2 22 77 111Fax: + 32 (0)2 22 77 903twitter: @UmicoreGroupwww.umicore.cominfo@umicore.com