Project duration: 01 January 2020 – 31 December 2021

Objective

The solution (technology)

The RecycleMyPhone MOOC project is based on the development of an online advanced course in the area of chemical extraction of metal elements from small portable electronics and battery waste.

Partnership

• Chimie ParisTech, France (Lead Partner)
• Chalmers tekniska högskola AB (Chalmers University of Technology), Sweden
• ERAMET IDeas, France
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

For more information, please visit the project web page.

Project duration: 1 April 2017 – 31 December 2019 

Objective

The project will assess the technical and economic feasibility study of a new process aimed at maximizing the water recovery from the aqueous effluents of a Copper Smelter. The new process will enable an optimal use of Raw Materials within Europe and will contribute to the current EU strategy on Circular Economy.

The solution (technology)

The goal of RED_SCOPE is to enable the treatment of complex copper concentrates, which is aligned to the knowledge & innovation theme of increased resource efficiency in mineral and metallurgical processes. This means the development of a flexible economic treatment of complex materials, thereby addressing the issue of removing the increasing amount of impurities and enabling greater reuse of process residues (recycling treated wastewater).

The project will improve the industrial competitiveness of copper smelters. The project actively contributes to achieving this impact because if improved wastewater treatment is implemented, it will make it possible to smelt complex copper and comply with the environmental limits on the discharge of concentrates. Also, the RED_SCOPE process reduces water and energy consumption (compared to conventional technologies), improves resource efficiency and reduces water management costs. Considering the new wastewater treatment plant as a new production unit, RED_SCOPE closes the material cycle for the water resource and strengthens the impact because it channels all effluent flows for treatment.

Expected results:

• Optimized Reverse Osmosis design to maximize water recovery and minimize brine generation
• Analysis of the BAT (Best available Technics) to treat the brine and to incorporate the near ZLD process (Zero Liquid Discharge), generating an inert solid residue
• Economic viability

Partnership

• Atlantic Copper, Spain (Lead Partner)
• IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institut, Sweden
• Suez Environment Company, France
• Aquatec, Proyectos para el Sector del Agua, S.A.U, Spain
• Cetaqua, Centro Tecnológico del Agua, Fundación Privada, Spain

The project consists of the technical feasibility assessment of the phase II.

Project duration: 1 January 2019 – 31 December 2021

Objective

The development of LED allows a significant reduction in energy consumption for lighting in buildings, towns or in transport, however, there is no technical solution for recycling LED as of today.

The solution (technology)

The aim of this project is to develop a technology to recycle LED that allows using end-of-life products for new products. Moreover, reusing critical raw materials present initially in the recycled LED allows Europe to develop a new source of secondary resources for the circular economy.

Partnership

• Université de Bordeaux, France (Lead Partner)
• Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières, BRGM (The French geological survey), France
• Coolrec, Netherlands
• Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium
• MTB Group, France
• Wuppertal Institut fuer Klima, Umwelt, Energie GmbH (Wuppertal Institute), Germany

Project duration: 1 January 2018 – 31 March 2021

Objective

Rare earth elements (REE) are critical raw materials imported in large numbers for modern industrial applications but almost exclusively extracted out of Europe, thus leaving the continent completely dependent on imports.

Europe-based REE production shall cover a significant amount of the domestic need and reduce business hazard due to a volatile world market. Bauxite and bauxite residue have been for a long time considered a viable resource of REE. With a large number of bauxite deposits in the Eastern and South-Eastern European (ESEE) region and a long tradition of the aluminium processing industry, which has left also a significant amount of bauxite residue behind, there is a respectable perspective for development of a new REE resource for Europe once geological, mining and technological aspect are well elaborated.

The solution (technology)

By extensive collection of available and acquiring new representative data, the project consortium is to assess the potential of the bauxite deposits and bauxite residue left behind bauxite processing industry for the production of REE in the ESEE region for European needs.

Also targeting an increase of innovation capacity in regional bauxite resources management for future developments in REE production, the project consortium will involve students in the execution of the project tasks and offer several educational events for students and professionals from R&D and industrial sector.

Partnership

• University of Zagreb – Faculty of Science (UNIZG – PMF), Croatia (Lead partner)
• Croatian Geological Survey (HGI-CGS), Croatia
• DMT GmbH & Co. KG, Germany
• Eötvös Loránd University Budapest (ELTE), Hungary
• Geological Survey of Montenegro (GSM), Montenegro
• Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria
• University of Miskolc, Hungary
• University of Zagreb, Croatia
• University of Zagreb – Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering (UNIZG-RGNF), Croatia
• Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute (ZAG), Slovenia

For more information, please visit the official website of the project.

Project duration: 1 March 2018 – 31 December 2020

Objective

In a significant pedagogic innovation, REFER will raise the awareness of critical raw materials in wider society through electronics repair events. The public will attend to have their electronics repaired but in the process will be engaged in discussion and informed about pressing CRM related issues, proposed solutions, and how they can help. REFER has a sustainability plan to maintain and expand beyond the duration of the project.

The solution (technology)

Raw materials, especially those which are scarce and therefore critical in nature, are crucial to the world economy and essential to maintaining and improving the quality of life therein. They are of paramount importance in the modern, technological world and any supply interruptions would be very disruptive to the economy and to society. As such, significant actions at many levels are required to tackle this situation and it is essential to inform the general public as to the rationale for such actions.

In spite of this situation, the concept of critical raw materials is relatively unknown to the general public, who for the most part are largely unaware of the issues. This lack of awareness endangers the development of long-term solutions and developments in this field. The REFER project seeks to address this shortfall through the medium of appliance repair for the general public with a continuous series of repair events and associated educational resources and website. Using this pedagogic innovation, the project further aims to facilitate education, discussion and engagement around this topic with usually difficult to reach sections of the general public through the unique opportunity presented in this regard.

The project will undertake the creation and establishment of a network of educational-driven, repair-based events across 6 countries in Europe, allowing people to bring their small electrical and electronic devices to be repaired. Immediately when they arrive the waiting areas will contain posters and printed materials so the engagement begins from the first moment they arrive. Attendees will then sit down with expert volunteers and staff to understand how the technology works, identify the problem and fix the device. Repairers will engage the participants in discussions on the nature of the technology, the range and amounts of CRMs and other scarce resources used and what can be done to address the lack of such resources.

Some of the key points to be raised during such discussions will be the increased use of critical raw materials, rare earth elements and other scarce metals and resources in modern-day consumer products; the low recycling rates of CRMs at present and the reasons behind these, including new approaches and technologies being developed in this regard; the low collections rates for WEEE in general at national and international levels, why it is so important and what can be done about it and finally the use of extended product lifetime, repair and reuse as a means to conserve some of these CRMs.

The public of course will have a very large incentive to participate in these educational outreach activities as they get the benefit of attempting to have their devices repaired for free. The project will also develop a sustainability plan focusing on the development of entrepreneurial skills with voluntary networks that will be nurtured during the project.

Partnership

• University of Limerick, Ireland (Lead Partner)
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (Fraunhofer), Germany
• Hub Innovazione Trentino S.c.a.r.l. (HIT), Italy
• Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium
• Lund University, Sweden
• The Restart Project, United Kingdom

For more information, please visit the project web page.

Objective

The main objective of REFRESCO is providing on-demand professional refreshment courses (PRCs) in the field of non-energy raw materials, in particular regarding recovery of materials from secondary resources and substitution of CRM, and related fields such as environmental evaluation, business opportunities and supply chain management. The programme will target companies, public administration and professionals (e.g. consultants).

The solution (technology)

REFRESCO will tailor PRCs to target audiences, with a multi-disciplinary approach, combining in a single course many different topics, normally delivered separately (e.g. technological aspects, together with market issues) in order to offer a complete picture to professionals working with raw materials.

The courses will be offered on demand, after need and target analysis, within 6 areas related to raw materials, in particular:

1. Supply chain management;
2. Innovative and advanced technologies for recovering metals from urban waste;
3. Innovative and advanced technologies for recovering metals from industrial waste;
4. Innovative and advanced technologies for metals substitution to reduce CRM consumption;
5. Business opportunities and relative market of recovered metals;
6. Environmental impact of metals.

Partnership

• Agenzia Nazionale per le Nuove Tecnologie, l’Energia e lo Sviluppo Economico Sostenibile (ENEA), Italy (Lead Partner)
• Bay Zoltan Nonprofit Ltd. for Applied Research, Hungary
• Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, CEA (French Alternative  Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), France
• Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
• Università degli Studi di Milano – Bicocca (University of Milano- Bicocca), Italy
• Università degli Studi di Padova (University of Padova), Italy
• University of Limerick, Ireland
• Zanardi Fonderie S.p.A, Italy

Programme Co-ordinator: Grazia Barberio, grazia.barberio@enea.it

01 January 2018 – 31 March 2021

Objective

The ultimate goal of REGENERATION is to replace current state of the art solar cells with advanced high-efficiency thin-film solar cells produced on reusable Ge wafers as Best Alternative Technology (BAT) for different market segments ranging from spacecraft to large-scale terrestrial exploitation in the built environment. Besides cost reduction, the fact that these thin-film cells are light-weight and flexible have important knock-on cost and design advantages for utilization in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV).

The project will result in the development and market uptake of a radical cross-disciplinary innovation with the potential to reduce the use of critical raw material with virtually 100% in a growing application area. Simultaneously, the project contributes to the field of sustainable energy innovation by enabling the production of high-efficiency (>30%), flexible, thin-film solar cells to surpass the present generation wafer-based rigid Si solar modules with efficiencies <20%.

With regard to long-term benefit for Europe, an important aspect is that by reducing our demand for raw Ge material, we decrease Europe’s dependency on the non-sustainable raw material supply from China. That dependency contains both a financial and an environmental sustainability risk: from the past years we know that sudden unpredictable policies of China can lead to strong price increases of raw Ge, and on the other hand China’s production of Ge by burning coal is not sustainable. If we require less raw Ge for wafer production, then we can rely to a greater extent on non-Chinese sources that are more sustainable in the long term.

The solution (technology)

The research community will be challenged to develop innovative thin-film devices that previously could not be produced and discover new mechanisms (such as photon recycling in thin-film solar cells) that lead to enhanced performance of the thin-film devices over their wafer based counter parts.

Partnership

• Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands (Lead partner)
• Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., Germany
• tf2 devices B.V., Netherlands
• UMICORE NV, Belgium

Project duration: 1 January 2019 – 31 March 2022

Objective

Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) are the main material used whenever rigidity and lightweight are required. Within these features, CFRPs can be used in a large range of applications. Nevertheless, this material has today very low recyclability, high cost, and high carbon footprint – drawbacks that prevent its broad use in sectors like sports equipment, nautical and automobile industries. With the increasing demand for CFRPs, production waste and end-of-life products are also expecting to increase. These both factors combined demand the emergence of a new market on high-quality recycled carbon fibres with the advantages of lower price and lower carbon footprint needed to facilitate the substitution of critical raw materials in the industry.

The solution (technology)

The RELICARIO project aims to develop to the demonstration scale a new technology to recycle CFRPs using thermosolvolysis. The patented process uses low pressure and low temperature, offering easier industriability and lower process cost comparing with available processes to recycle CFRPs. Moreover, the oligomers of the degraded composite matrix can be recovered in this process, for a maximum valorisation of by-products. In this project, the technical feasibility of this technology will be proven through performance modelling, product analysis and pre-serial fabrication of automotive pieces made with recycled fibres, thus focusing in the substitution of metals currently used in the automotive industry by recycled carbon fibres.

Partnership

• Extracthive, France (Lead Partner)
• Veolia Umweltservice GmbH, Germany
• Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), France
• Ghent University, Belgium
• LEARTIKER SCOOP., Spain
• MAIER S. COOP., Spain
• Mondragon Corporation S. Coop., Spain
• Veolia Deutschland GmbH, Germany
• Veolia Recherche et Innovation (VERI), France

Project duration: 1 January 2020 – 31 December 2021

ReLieVe project will up-scale an innovative closed-loop process to recycle Li-ion batteries from electric vehicles to supply Europe with critical raw materials required for batteries manufacturing. It will involve industrial leaders and academic experts all along the value chain, from the batteries collection to the manufacturing of high added value battery-grade products working in a close relationship.

Objective

ReLieVe project intends to develop an innovative closed-loop process to recycle Li-ion batteries (LIB) from electric vehicles (EV) to supply Europe with critical raw materials required for new LIB manufacturing. It will involve leaders all along the value chain, from LIB collection and dismantling (SUEZ), going to the recycling unit (Eramet) towards the manufacturing of cathode materials (BASF). This consortium has the strong support of experts from academic research with Chimie ParisTech and NTNU for the closed-loop process developing and modelling. DAIMLER is part of the project as a member of the Advisory Board to provide guidance and understanding of the car manufacturer point of view. Therefore, partners of this project are strong players from each type of business working in a close relationship to develop not only a recycling process at industrial scale but a new fair value sharing over the value chain. The process is co-developed by Eramet, BASF and Chimie ParisTech with a strong focus on sustainability to minimize the environmental impact in terms of carbon footprint and to maximize the number of LIB compounds to be valorized.

The objective is to:

• test this process at pilot scale and to propose the design of an industrial unit
• integrate the recycling process into the value chain with a major player in waste management (SUEZ) and a leader in battery material manufacturing (BASF)

The solution (technology)

ReLieVe will include the following features:

• deep assessment for the best way to collect and dismantle LIB, sort and discharge cells with an overall evaluation of the added value of automation tools (SUEZ)
• upscaling of the close-loop process that will include a digital component (based on modeling work of NTNU) to design a flexible recycling unit that will adapt its processing conditions to the nature of the LIB chemistry in agreement with the expected chemical grades for the final products
• qualification of the LIB precursors for those who already exist such as Ni sulfate, but also for new products that could be suitable for cathode manufacturing (BASF)

Partnership

• ERAMET IDeas, France (Lead partner)
• BASF SE, Sweden
• Chimie ParisTech, France
• Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway
• SUEZ Groupe SAS, France