Project description
Advanced approach to mixed scrap recycling for superior aerospace alloys
Establishing a sustainable supply chain for raw materials is key to meeting the European Green Deal’s goals of conserving energy and reducing environmental costs in primary production. Critical elements like Al, Si, Mg, Ce, La, Eu, Y and Tb are on the EU’s strategic material lists owing to their economic significance and high supply risk. The recycling rate for these materials is low because scrap and end-of-life products (EoL), such as solar cells and fluorescent lamp waste, contain various metals. Projections show significant increases in Al scrap and EoL solar panels by 2050. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Waste2Space aims to develop a holistic, cost-effective recycling process for mixed scraps/EoL products that should benefit the aerospace and automotive industries by producing complex concentrated alloys.
Objective
Establishing a sustainable supply chain for raw materials is a must for creating an industrial ecosystem aligned with the goals of the European Green Deal, which emphasizes energy conservation and reducing environmental costs in primary production. Elements such as Al, Si, Mg, Ce, La, Eu, Y, and Tb have been included in the EU's strategic and/or critical material lists due to their economic significance and high supply risk. The recycling rate of these strategic and/or critical materials is low because supplied scrap and End-of-Life (EoL) products, such as Zorba scrap, solar cells, light metal scraps/chips, Si-kerf, glass polishing powders, and fluorescent lamp waste, contain a mixture of various metals. Estimations show that the amount of Al scrap will rise to approximately 125,000 metric tons per year by 2035 and 246,000 metric tons per year by 2050. Additionally, projections anticipate that End-of-Life (EoL) solar panels will amount to 1.7 to 8 million tons by 2030, with this growth expected to increase to 60 to 77 million tons by 2050. However, the complex structures of scraps/EoL products, containing a wide range of elements, pose significant challenges for the recycling process of these metals. Waste2Space aims to develop a holistic recycling process for mixed scraps/EoL products, ensuring the mix to be a benefit rather than an obstacle. A straightforward and cost-effective approach to utilizing mixed scraps and EoL products will be developed with the aim of producing CCAs for the aerospace and automotive industries.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringwaste managementwaste treatment processesrecycling
- engineering and technologymaterials engineering
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
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Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
7491 Trondheim
Norway