Simon Jowitt and Brian McNulty (Geoscience) recently published a paper in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews on critical metals – often discarded as a byproduct of mining operations – that are vital components in the global push for low-carbon energy generation, storage, and transport.

Researchers explored the current global supply and demand for tellurium, a critical metal that's growing in popularity for its use in an emerging type of solar panel. Tellurium is regularly discarded during mining for copper and zinc, and researchers argue that improving recovery of the metal is both environmentally responsible and important as demand increases for tellurium and other finite non-renewable resources.