Recycling of High Quality CRM Resources from Machining Tools for Re-use Applications

Project Information

RESQTOOL

Grant agreement ID: 101138144

DOI

10.3030/101138144

EC signature date 24 November 2023

Start date 1 December 2023

End date 30 November 2027

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 8 577 717,50

EU contribution

€ 6 956 195,76

Coordinated by

EUROPEAN POWDER METALLURGY ASSOCIATION
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RESQTOOL (Recycling of High Quality CRM Resources from Machining Tools for Re-use Applications)

Reporting period: 2023-12-01 to 2025-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Sustainable recycling of Hard Metals is a very urgent necessity for the EU in terms of social, environmental and economic performance. The RESQTOOL project will demonstrate the capability of Zinc Reclaim and bio-chemical processes to re-use and recover critical raw materials in all stages of the Hard Metals value chain ranging from collection, logistics, sorting and separation to cleaning, refining and purification of materials. Demonstrating an approach towards zero waste manufacturing by means of energy and resource efficiency, and by a validation using real parts from the HM industry, the project will go beyond the state-of-the-art in terms of maturity (from TRL 5 to 8) and hence contribute to the European Green Deal.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

RESQTOOL proposes improved collecting, sorting, classification and recycling technologies for hardmetal scrap in EU, particularly for WC and Co. Two main technologies of hardmetal recycling is in the scope of the project.
First method is Zinc-reclaim which is already used at an industrial scale by TIKOMET in Finland, where the aim is to improve and upscale the current system by lowering carbon footprint and energy consumption.
The second one is Bio-recycling, which is an alternative for Chemical recycling that uses high amount of energy and hazardous chemicals. UNICA has developed an alternative process by using bio-derived organic acids, e.g. lactic acid produced by controlled dark fermentation of dairy waste. UNICA and FILMS has constructed a reactor for bio-chemical recycling of hardmetals to recycle hardmetal production process wastes of FILMS.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

A coding system for hardmetal products has been developed by CEIT and all related partners to be used in sorting and classification after their end of life. This coding system will help to identify the HM scrap in a rapid and efficient manner by using automated sorting systems.
Another advantage of a product code is to use it as a kind of passport, where each unique product will have its own ID and any fake and illegal imitated hardmetal products from non-EU countries can be detected and prevented very quickly in order to protect the European hardmetal industry from unfair competition.
At the meantime, PHOENIX has built up an automatic sorting unit with support from STADLER by the supply of HM scrap collected all around Europe. Currently the system operates by visual recognition without using any codes The next step under development is use the developed codes that are marked on samples supplied by CERATIZIT, HILTI and SANDVIK to assure a highly efficient sorting and classification according to the product groups already defined within the project.