Objective The recycling business is traditionally dominated by SMEs. In the last 2-3 years a general trend in the electronics recycling sector to bigger companies is very visible. Multinational, multisector companies are buying several smaller recyclers every year. This trend is caused by 2 factors: • Many countries transposed the WEEE- and Battery Directives in a way relying heavily on collective systems. • Also the big secondary raw material processors are more interested in few big contracts instead of a lot of small contracts as this brings down their administrative costs. Therefore it is close to impossible to sell materials with a high metal concentration for SMEs at the moment. Therefore the HydroWEEE project deals with the recovery of base and precious metals from WEEE including lamps and spent batteries by hydrometallurgical processes. The idea is to develop a mobile plant using hydrometallurgical processes to extract metals like Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), Yttrium (Y), Indium (In), … in a high purity (above 95%). By making this plant mobile (in a container) several SMEs can benefit from the same plant at different times and therefore limit the necessary quantities of waste as well as investments. In addition this new HydroWEEE process will produce pure enough materials that they can be directly used by end-users for electroplating. Because of this 2 levels of intermediaries from today (bigger recyclers and secondary material processors) will be bypassed. This will make the SMEs much more competitive than today and reverse the general trend to bigger companies. The HydroWEEE consortium has 9 partners from 4 countries - 3 EU Member States (Austria, Romania, Italy) and a Western Balkan Country (Serbia). All in all it has been calculated that HydroWEEE generates a turnover in excess of 100 million € and about 150 interesting work places within the SMEs – approximately 100 times the total cost of the project or 130 times the EU-funding Fields of science engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecyclingnatural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrytransition metalsnatural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrypost-transition metals Keywords End-of-Life Recycling hydrometallurgical process Programme(s) FP7-SME - Specific Programme "Capacities": Research for the benefit of SMEs Topic(s) SME-1 - Research for SMEs Call for proposal FP7-SME-2008-1 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme BSG-SME - Research for SMEs Coordinator OSTERREICHISCHE GESELLSCHAFT FUR SYSTEM- UND AUTOMATISIERUNGSTECHNIK EU contribution € 39 610,00 Address KONRAD-DUDEN-GASSE 33 1130 Wien Austria See on map Region Ostösterreich Wien Wien Activity type Research Organisations Administrative Contact Bernd Kopacek (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Participants (8) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all ECO RECYCLING SOCIETA A RESPONSABILITA LIMITATA Italy EU contribution € 276 075,00 Address VIA FRANCESCO SIACCI 4 00197 Roma See on map Region Centro (IT) Lazio Roma Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Ida De Michelis (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data RELIGHT SRL Italy EU contribution € 130 555,00 Address VIA LAINATE 98/100 20017 RHO See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Emanuela Colombo (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data COMPANY FOR MANAGEMENT AND ECOLOGICAL RESEARCHES SE TRADE DOO BELGRADE Serbia EU contribution € 139 175,00 Address SLANACKI PUT ST 26 11060 BEOGRAD See on map Activity type Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments) Administrative Contact Zorana Nikolic (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI ROMA LA SAPIENZA Italy EU contribution € 5 990,00 Address Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 00185 Roma See on map Region Centro (IT) Lazio Roma Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Anna Maria Provinciali (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data INSTITUT MIHAJLO PUPIN Serbia EU contribution € 11 070,00 Address VOLGINA 15 11060 Beograd See on map Region Србија - север Београдски регион Београдска област Activity type Research Organisations Administrative Contact Milena Antic (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data GREENTRONICS SRL Romania EU contribution € 205 935,00 Address STRADA VIILOR 15 140110 Alexandria Teleorman See on map Region Macroregiunea Trei Sud-Muntenia Teleorman Administrative Contact Nicolae Voicu (Mr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DELL'AQUILA Italy EU contribution € 9 834,00 Address PIAZZA SANTA MARGHERITA 2 67100 L Aquila See on map Region Sud Abruzzo L’Aquila Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Leonardo Adamo Pajewski (Prof.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Total cost No data UNIVERSITA POLITECNICA DELLE MARCHE Italy EU contribution € 6 756,00 Address PIAZZA ROMA 22 60121 Ancona See on map Region Centro (IT) Marche Ancona Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Francesca Beolchini (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data