Trace Element Disposition
Every atom that enters the facility through manufacturing feedstock or co-fed legacy ash exits through one of the catalog's product lines. The system is engineered for near-zero residual, near-zero atmospheric emissions, and near-zero liquid discharge — every species in the feedstock has a defined disposition. Trace elements present below the threshold for their own dedicated product line are concentrated into bulk products of the appropriate refining family within those products' spec tolerances; below-spec off-spec material is captured by polishing modules and recirculated to Recyclotron™ feed; fugitive particulates are recovered by the APS Product Recovery System and returned to the appropriate processing line. The table below tracks the disposition of every category of trace element appearing in the combined manufacturing feedstock + co-fed legacy ash stream.
| Trace Species | Source | Destination | Mechanism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Hg, As, Sb) | co-fed legacy fly-ash fraction + electronics feedstock | MTL-RC4-HM products (MTL-028/029/030/031, MTL-051) |
Selective extraction at ASH-VAL (Step 3 of ash sequence). Heavy metals concentrated by oxidative leaching, separated by precipitation, refined to >99.99% in dedicated MTL trains. |
| Rare earth elements (Ce, La, Nd, Y, Pr, Gd) | legacy ash + HDD magnets + display phosphors | MTL-RC4-REE products (MTL-016 → MTL-021) |
Solvent extraction + selective precipitation at ASH-REE (Step 2 of ash sequence). Critical to capture before mineral carbonation locks them into stable carbonates. |
| Precious metals (Ag, Au, Pt, Pd) | E-waste fraction (PCBs, contacts) + catalytic converters | MTL-RC3-PRC (MTL-012 → MTL-015) |
Hydrometallurgical leach + cementation in dedicated PRC train. E-waste fraction is mechanically separated upstream of MCR; cat-cons are routed directly to PRC. |
| Specialty metals (Ga, In, W, Bi) | LED, LCD, filament, cosmetic-fraction feedstock | MTL-RC5-AE products (MTL-040 → MTL-043) |
Selective leach + multi-stage purification on the small-volume electronics-fraction-derived stream. See Research & Demonstration tier. |
| Calcium (Ca²⁺), Magnesium (Mg²⁺) | Bulk legacy ash (~10–25% CaO) | MIN-004 PCC + MIN-002 SCM | Ash carbonation at ASH-CO2: alkaline minerals react with facility-internal GAS-003 CO₂ to form stable carbonates. Carries durable CO₂ removal credit (~0.44 t CO₂ per t MIN-004). |
| Trace silica, alumina, iron oxides | Bulk manufacturing feedstock + co-fed legacy ash mineral matrix | MIN family (MIN-001 aggregate → MIN-005 filler) |
Post-extraction mineral residue routed to MIN-RC0-COL after the four-step ash sequence. Becomes pozzolanic SCM, geopolymer precursor, ceramic filler. |
| Trace organics, nitrogen, sulfur | Variable across manufacturing feedstock (food, plastics, textiles) | GAS family + ARM family | Tar cracking in MCR freeboard fully decomposes complex organics to syngas (CO/H₂/CH₄/CO₂) and BTX aromatics. N and S species captured at gas separation; no organic discharge possible. |
| Alkali salts (Na⁺, K⁺, Cl⁻, F⁻) | Organic-fraction feedstock, cleaning products, road salt residue | WTR-RC2 / RC3 ion-exchange + brine concentrate | Captured in deionization stages of WTR cascade. Brine concentrate processed for industrial salt recovery or cycled to ASH-CO2 for trace mineralization. |
| Below-spec residuals (< 1 ppm any species) | Polishing-stage rejects across all families | CRB-003 activated carbon → MCR recirculation | Residuals adsorbed onto activated carbon polishing beds; spent sorbent returned to Recyclotron™ feed where the carbon matrix becomes new char (CRB-001) and trapped species redistribute through the system on the next pass. |
| Off-spec product fractions | Quality-failure rejects from any RC tier | RC1 of same family (downcycle path) | Every product in the catalog has an explicit downcycle path shown by the ↓ symbol — off-spec material returns to the family's RC1 collection point and re-enters the refining cascade. No rejected material leaves the facility. |
| Fugitive particulates (any species) | Drying, milling, transfer operations | IAPPCS capture → CRB-RC0-FED or MIN-RC0-COL | Integrated Atmospheric Protection & Particulate Capture System captures 100% of fugitive particulates. Carbon-rich particulates routed to char feedstock; mineral particulates routed to mineral residue feed. |
The closed-loop principle
Mass conservation by design. The Recyclotron™ processes 125 TPD of feedstock (100 TPD manufacturing feedstock + 25 TPD co-fed legacy ash, delivered into Pregenesis™ directly or via the Exogenesis™ precursor protocol) at steady state. The sum of all output streams — six Recyclotron™ molecular outputs plus PEM fuel-cell ultra-pure water plus carbonate-mineralized CO₂ — equals the mass input plus the CO₂ taken up during ash carbonation. There is no dump bin, no purge, no flare, no aeration tank, no landfill. The facility is engineered such that no atom has a destination labelled "discard."
Trace elements at < spec threshold are not discarded — they are co-located with the appropriate bulk product. A few hundred ppm of cobalt in the iron pigment stream (MTL-050), parts-per-million zinc in mineral aggregate (MIN-001), trace organics in the carbonate (MIN-004) — these are within the customer specs of those products and travel with them as benign co-constituents. Where the bulk product spec is tighter than what trace co-location can support, polishing modules pull the trace species out and the spent polishing media is recirculated to Recyclotron™ feed, where the trace element redistributes through the next pass and ultimately concentrates into a stream where it has commercial value.
The IAPPCS guarantees zero atmospheric release. All vented gases pass through the Integrated Atmospheric Protection & Particulate Capture System before any potential release point. Particulate capture is filterless on the back end — captured material returns to upstream processing where it becomes feedstock for the next reaction cycle.
Data Sources & Calibration Notes
All yields in this catalog are validated against published data on manufacturing feedstock composition, legacy ash analysis, and global production capacity for specialty materials. Per-module figures (100 TPD manufacturing feedstock + 25 TPD legacy ash co-feed) reflect what is actually recoverable from the validated feedstock composition, not theoretical maxima.
Feedstock composition
- EPA Facts & Figures 2018 — manufacturing feedstock national overview: electronics feedstock = 0.92% (2.7 Mt of 292.4 Mt total); metals = 9–13%; glass = 5%; paper/board = 23%
- MDPI Energies 2025 (Vol. 18, 2101) — co-fed legacy ash: 1–3% Fe, ≤0.4% non-ferrous; fly ash heavy metals (Pb/Cd/Sb)
- Center for Sustainable Systems, U. Michigan (2023) — manufacturing feedstock composition profile, regional management
Precious metals from electronics feedstock
- Royal Mint / C&EN (2024) — 1 t PCBs ≈ 90 g Au, 400 g Ag, kg-scale Cu
- Sci. Adv. 2022 (Tour et al., abm3132) — Flash Joule Heating REE recovery; electronics feedstock 5–970 ppm Pd, 10–1600 ppm Au
- Global E-waste Monitor 2024 — $91B in raw materials in 62 Mt electronics feedstock; recovery rates < 25%
Critical raw materials & REEs
- JRC RMIS (EU) — Critical Raw Materials assessments 2017/2020/2023; LREE/HREE/PGM groupings
- ACS Sust. Resource Mgmt. 2024 — REE recovery from manufacturing feedstock legacy combustion-based processing ash; citrate-oxalate route
- ACS Materials 2023 — Phosphorus & CRM recovery from sewage/manufacturing feedstock/biomass ash
Air separation & noble gases
- Royal Society 1956 (Aoki & Makide) — Atmospheric Kr = 1.139 ppm, Xe = 0.086 ppm by volume
- EFC Gases / JinHong Gas (2024) — ASU yield: 1.2 kg Xe + 7 kg Kr per 1000 t O₂ output
- Union Carbide US Patent 4401448 — Cryogenic Xe/Kr recovery process
Nanocarbon production scale
- Future Markets Inc. 2023 / Coatings World — OCSiAl global SWCNT capacity 75–150 t/yr (≈90% market share)
- MarketsandMarkets 2024 — Global CNT market $1.31B (2024); MWCNT capacity ~1000+ t/yr (LG, JEIO, Cabot)
- OCSiAl TUBALL data sheets — Reduced graphene oxide / multi-layer graphene at specialty 50–500 kg/d scale
Process & energy
- NREL / DOE-ARPA-E (2020) — E-waste fraction in manufacturing feedstock; circular manufacturing rates by category
- EPA AP-42 / legacy WTE — Combustion ash composition; CaO content (~10–25%) for carbonation
- Carbotura MCR & Recyclotron™ specifications — Internal: thermal balance, ash carbonation stoichiometry
Recalibration v2027.0 dropped 8 products from the prior draft that lacked feedstock support: Mo (5N6), V (5N), Be, Se, Te, Tl, V₂O₅, and Benzo[a]pyrene. RC5 was split into RC5-C Commercial (production-scale) and RC5-R Research/Demonstration (gram to kilogram per day, feedstock-limited or globally specialty-scale). Where calibration changed materially, the source citation is shown as a ⓘ tooltip on the product row.