Jiří Hájek

With more than 7 years of experience in HDS/HCU start-ups as well as in HCU debottlenecking, Jiří Hájek spend a lot of time in the field, e.g. inspecting and controling reactor internals prior catalyst loading and was responsible for coordination of few of biggests refinery and petrochemistry units in Czech refinery. With such a field knowledge it’s only obvious, that Jiří is now as a CEO focusing mainly on preparation and execution of business plans along with continuously supervising all ORLEN UniCRE’s reaserch and also it’s implementation into not only into ORLEN Capital Group daily business but to daily routines of loads of companies, that work in the refinery and petrochemistry field in central and eastern Europe.

Session Overview

Thursday, 7 November

12:45

Decarbonisation Conference Decarbonisation Theatre 12:45 - 13:15

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Reducing demand for critical minerals through circular economy measures

Decarbonising the energy system will require a significant amount of critical minerals including lithium, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements, to produce technologies such as solar PV, wind turbines and EV batteries. Modelling shows the use of advanced technologies with lower mineral demand combined with ambitious circular economy measures could reduce the cumulative demand for these critical minerals. However, significant challenges must be addressed to enable the benefits, including critical mineral recycling infrastructure, economic incentives for modular product designs that allow disassembly and reuse, and new thinking by end-users. Governments and businesses will need to consider implementing circular economy strategies like lifetime extension, and material efficiency to further decrease mineral demand.

Attendee insights:

Understand the role of circularity in reducing demand for critical minerals and the opportunity created by implementing circular economy practices.