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Circular Manufacturing 5.0: Human-Centred AI-aided Digital Framework for Closed-loop Photovoltaic (PV) products Value Chains

Project description

Advancing circular production in PV manufacturing

The shift towards sustainable production is critical, as the current ‘take-make-dispose’ model leads to waste and resource depletion. Manufacturing industries need ways to reduce their environmental impact while maintaining profitability. Circular production emphasises reusing, repairing, and recycling products, but implementing these practices across industries remains a challenge. Many lack the tools to efficiently redesign processes and products for circularity. In this context, the EU-funded CIRCMAN5.0 project combines advanced technologies like AI and machine learning with human-centred design. Focusing on the photovoltaic industry, it helps manufacturers reduce waste, optimise resources, and assess sustainability. CIRCMAN5.0 also provides the workforce with the skills needed to implement circular practices and ensure greener production.

Objective

The EU guidelines for circular production and supply chains require a strategic approach at every stage of the product lifecycle. The shift towards circularity starts with circular design principles, where the linear “take-make-dispose” model is superseded by the one that prioritizes reusability, reparability, and recyclability. CIRCMAN5.0 combines advanced industry 4.0 technologies with human-centric design principles to assess and demonstrate how waste reduction and optimization of raw material can be feasible and profitable while significantly reducing the environmental impact of manufacturing processes.

CIRCMAN5.0 delivers a Human-Centred AI-aided Framework for the Photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry, entailing: (I) AI-driven modelling and circular-by-design simulation techniques for product design; (II) ML algorithms for dynamic production process reconfiguration; (III) A Cognitive Digital Twin environment supported by AAS models for testing and verification of manufacturing processes for efficient resource utilisation, waste management etc; (III) A Circularity and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Framework to help with comprehensive evaluation of the sustainability aspects of products and processes using data/feedback from AI-based process optimisation, forecasting models, energy and emissions metrics etc.; (IV) The Human-in-the-Loop (HitL) Recommendation Engine to provide actionable and explainable recovery strategies for EoL products; (V) The Digital Product/Material Passport (DPP) enabled by Distributed Ledger Technology enabling secure and trustworthy information sharing. The learning resources developed in the project will equip the EU industrial workforce with digital, circular and transversal skills. CIRCMAN5.0 will be tested in four (4) PV manufacturing industries providing different type of products (e.g. perovskites PV, BIPV, BAPV, OPV).

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL4-2024-TWIN-TRANSITION-01

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Coordinator

ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 923 750,00
Address
CHARILAOU THERMI ROAD 6 KM
57 001 THERMI THESSALONIKI
Greece

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Region
Βόρεια Ελλάδα Κεντρική Μακεδονία Θεσσαλονίκη
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 923 750,00

Participants (16)

Partners (2)

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