Objective
FOUNDRY WASTENETWORK OVERVIEW:
The total number of employees in the European foundry industry is approximately 250.000.Foundry waste is an area which has high priority within the growing European foundry industry both from an environmental point of view and from an economical point of view. In order to achieve a competitive foundry industry in Europe in the future, it is necessary that the foundry industry fulfil the increasing demand on environment. If not, the production of castings will move to foundries in countries outside Europe having less environmental awareness. And this will not reduce the global environmental problems, on the contrary. The total amount of foundry waste is equivalent to the tonnage of casting produced. In Europe that is approximately 12.000.000 tons of waste per year (75% sand waste and 25% dust, sludge, and others).
The overall objectives of the Network are, through coordination, research cooperation, and identification of possible synergies, gaps, and common RTD-projects, to:- develop methods to reduce the amount of waste;- develop methods for waste treatment leading to higher recycling in the foundries;- develop methods to reduce the toxicity enabling the waste to be used as raw material in other industries. The Network will be organized in two working groups each with its own manager:- sand waste working group- dust and sludge working group. The dissemination of the results of the Network will be done by the partners through the national foundry associations, and bythe Network to the European Foundry Association.
EUROPEAN DIMENSION AND PARTNERSHIP
The idea for the network was born in the Nordic FoundryResearch Group STOEPFORSK to establish an European cooperationwithin a vital well defined area.Foundry environment, and within it foundry waste, is or will beone of the most environmental and economical problems to theEuropean foundry industry.The Foundry Waste European Network represents ten countriesand will be instrumental in spreading faster and moreeffectively results from previous RTD projects and practicalexperiments of reuse of foundry waste in the differentcountries.This will help to establish a common European practice in orderto solve, within Europe, a world wide environmental problem andto increase the competitiveness of the European foundryindustry.The Network will have sixteen partners from ten countriesrepresenting one university, eight research institutes andseven industrial companies, five of which are SMEs. The sevenindustrial partners are representing four leading Europeanfoundries and three leading European producers of foundryequipments.
POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:
The regulations on foundry waste throughout Europe vary frompractically no regulations to controlled regulations ondifferent type of waste based on their toxicity.Two main gaps exist which should be closed or narrowed in theshort term in order to achieve reduction and/or alternative useof foundry waste:- thermal and mechanical sand waste reclamation units haveto be developed which can be adjusted to the need of eachindividual foundry. This in relation to the size and theactual binder systems used at the foundry; developments and pilot scale tests of differentalternative use of foundry waste. These tests shouldprovide documentation for the environmental authorities confirming that the alternative use is environmental acceptable, and for industries which will use the treated or untreated waste confirming that the quality of the waste and the price is attractive for their purpose.
In the longer term the gaps should be closed by development ofClean Technologies such as:- new binder systems avoiding or minimizing organicmaterials;- processes avoiding or minimizing the creation of dust andsludge.The projects in the Network will primarily address the shortterm area, but one of the goals of the network is to definecommon RTD-projects with longer term objectives.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
THN - Thematic network contractsCoordinator
8000 AARHUS C
Denmark