SEMPATHY · Socio-Economic Metabolism PATHways for sustainable metal cYcles

SEMPATHY aims to develop and apply a multi-material, mass balance-consistent, composition-aware, and process simulation-based method called Material Pathway Analysis to provide the basis for modelling, simulating, and optimising sustainable global material cycles for technology metals. SEMPATHY addresses the urgent challenge of global metal cycles not being closed and the environmental impacts of metal production and processing becoming more relevant globally. At the same time, global demand for technology metals rises due to the shift to renewable energy, electromobility, clean energy-intensive industry, digitalisation, and aerospace. The SEMPATHY project promises a revolutionary better understanding of global anthropogenic metal cycles and, for that purpose, develops a better modelling framework for examining metals' pathways in the anthroposphere. SEMPATHY leverages new information on the first and final use of metals and metalloids in materials, components, and products. It creates a database for the elemental composition of these materials, components, and products. The project uses process simulation to identify composition-dependent processes and recycling yields for technology metals. By providing access to these yields to sociometabolic research, it identifies optimisation potentials in the circular economy. SEMPATHY creates a new revolutionary modelling framework that allows the development of a new Material Pathway Analysis methodology that provides a systemic view of global metal cycles and allows tracing metals even within their use as alloying elements, contaminants, or waste streams. These metal pathways will be visualised through interactive maps generated using the data and computational methods developed throughout the project. SEMPATHY creates the basis for next-level modelling, simulation, and evaluation of material flows, essential for a sustainable, resilient, and secure supply of technology metals, many of which are Critical Raw Materials.