EU project RENEW supports circular economy by turning waste into resource
EIT RawMaterials funded recycling project, RENEW, led by Atlantic Copper, reduces the organic content of Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) – specifically Waste Printed Circuit Boards (WPCB), by separation and valorisation without losing any of the valuable metals.
The practice of recovery of metals within WPCBs will help boost secondary supplies by increasing the rate of critical raw materials recycled. Securing access to critical raw materials from secondary sources is one of the key priorities for Europe to ensure resilient supply chains. EIT RawMaterials supports research and innovation across the value chain to secure a sustainable raw materials supply for European industrial ecosystems.
Novel recycling technologies addressing environmental and health hazards
The WPCB contain significant amounts of recoverable metals such as copper, gold, silver, and critical metals like palladium and platinum. However, the WPCB recycling process can present some environmental challenges due to the high content of epoxy and bromine.
The majority of copper smelters processing WEEE feed their recycling furnaces with the WPCB including its epoxy content. The RENEW project goes one step further with new technologies for epoxy pre-separation and economic recycling. The process leads to several important benefits: the reduction of the CO2 footprint in the WEEE recycling process, the valorisation of the contained epoxy and an increase of the concentration of metals in the recycling furnace’s input material.
EIT RawMaterials project RENEW aims at validating some complimentary technologies that will overcome this issue by removing and recycling part of the organic fraction from the WPCBs before these are completely recycled.
Three technology testing pilots are planned in Pfinztal (Germany), Seville (Spain) and Tallinn (Estonia) respectively. The EU project consortium will facilitate the recovery and sustainable access to secondary raw materials and critical raw materials in the copper smelters and WEEE recyclers. The combined solutions are expected to increase the recycling rates in Europe and insert valuable resources for green transition back into the loop. The project will also run awareness raising initiatives; for example, a pilot WEEE collection point will be developed to increase small WEEE collection amounts and to host information campaigns for the promotion of sustainability culture. In addition, a guide to “design for recycling” will be developed.
The project consortium is led by Atlantic Copper together with industry leaders in WEEE management and recycling, such as ERION and TREEE, and prominent partners from research and academia, such as Tallinn University of Technology, Fraunhofer Institutes and KU Leuven.
A circular solution to benefit major recycling players and EU citizens
WEEE recycling companies that commercialise recycled PCBs and the copper smelters that recycle non-ferrous metal fractions from WEEEs will benefit from the solutions developed by the EIT RawMaterials project and can potentially become the end-users of the technology.
The three-year project will follow three stages of development and will culminate with the technologies validation and engineering design as a key factor for assessing the potential industrial-scale implementation at the end-users’ facilities.
