Project: Reduction/ Oxidation Recycling

Acronym	RedOxRec (Reference Number: ERA-MIN-2018_9)
Project Topic	Our vision is to enable a more distributed recycling chain, where Small-Medium Enterprises (SME), individual production plants and municipalities become the main stakeholders of the recycling process chain. This shift in the recycling paradigm hinges on the dissemination of green recycling solutions throughout the territory. The core-innovation is the development of a medium-scale, environmentally friendly and low-cost hydrometallurgical process for the extraction of noble metals from End-of-Life products (e.g. electronics waste). Based on this technological breakthrough, we expect to trigger multiple ramifications from the technical, economic, social and environmental point of view. The cornerstone of this new hydrometallurgical recycling process is a completely new concept for noble metals chemical extraction by exploiting the so-called transient dissolution. This mechanism is a well-known degradation mechanism for all electrochemical applications and, opposite to conventional hydrometallurgy, does not require extremely aggressive conditions, but only a repeating change in surface (electro-) chemical potential. We intend to transfer this, so far, the purely electrochemistry-related process to a chemical reactor (TRL 5) and to validate experimentally the process for real scrap, e.g., manufacturing refuse from electronics production. In order to assess the impact on the overall value chain, the project will deal with the evaluation of the recycling process in a decentralized network and the identification of the corresponding technological solutions for disassembly, pre-treatment and logistics. In conclusion, the data obtained the TRL5 reactor will serve as input data to verify the economic feasibility of our innovative chemistry and to assess the environmental benefits this new recycling scenario by means of state-of-the-art Life Cycle Costing and Analysis (LCC and LCA).
Network	ERA-MIN 2
Call	ERA-MIN Joint Call 2018

Project partner

Number	Name	Role	Country
1	Robert Bosch GmbH	Coordinator	Germany
2	Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH	Partner	Germany
3	University of Antwerp	Partner	Belgium
4	National Institute of Chemistry	Partner	Slovenia