Project description
No more throwing out the bath water when it gets ‘dirty’
Metal components are critical to industries from manufacturing, transport and construction to agriculture and farming. Protecting metals from corrosion and wear is often accomplished with surface treatments acting as a barrier between the metals and the environment. Electroplating is an important process used to apply an inorganic barrier layer. The metal is placed in an electrolytic bath and a current is passed through it, resulting in the formation of an oxide on the surface of the metal. The EU-funded PureNano project will develop a simple and cost-effective way to regenerate plating baths, extending their lifetime as much as 10-fold and reducing the environmental impact of spent baths.
Objective
The surface treatment industry plays a major role in extending the life of metallic components used in various industrial sectors, as well as on providing high aesthetics in consuming products. The surface treatment sector is a relatively small sector compared to the whole of mechanical engineering and metal working, but it is one of the most significant cross-sectorial manufacturing branches in the European economy. The Global metal finishing market is growing at a CAGR of 6.50% during the period 2014-2020. Among all the segments in the market the inorganic metal finishing market dominates the rest in terms of both market share and volume. Due to the increasing demand from end user industries such as Automotive, Electronics, Aerospace and Consumer goods the global market for inorganic metal finishing technologies was worth 64.2 € billion in 2014 and is expected to reach 95.8 € billion with a CAGR of 6.91% by the end of 2020. Among the inorganic metal finishing technologies inorganic metal finishing processes have the largest share of market worth 42.1 € billion in 2014. PureNano proposes an innovative, low cost, sustainable method for purification of plating baths which will lead to a significant extension of their lifetime (up to 10 times) that will have as a result decrease of operation expenditures of plating shops, decrease of environmental risks from transportation of spent baths and increase of process efficiency and products quality. It is based in the timely treatment of plating baths with functionalized magnetic nanoparticles that can absorb in their surface the contaminants and chemical species that are accumulated.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- H2020-EU.3.5. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials Main Programme
- H2020-EU.3.5.4. - Enabling the transition towards a green economy and society through eco-innovation
- H2020-EU.3.5.3.2. - Promote the sustainable supply and use of raw materials, including mineral resources, from land and sea, covering exploration, extraction, processing, re-use, recycling and recovery
Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
20133 Milano
Italy