Recycling technologies for critical raw materials from EoL products (IA)

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

Projects outcomes will enable the expected impacts of the destination by increasing access to secondary raw materials, in particular critical raw materials^[1] for EU industrial value chains and strategic sectors which will alleviate critical raw materials dependency.

Projects are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

• Develop raw materials recycling and re-use of components and/or products from end-of-life products technologies and urban mines, including efficient sorting technologies for separation and recycling and the sustainable embedment of the process regarding energy, resource and water efficiency.
• Improve responsible supply of raw materials to Europe in line with the EU principles for sustainable raw materials, which are a non-regulatory set of principles based on the EU acquis. They set out requirements for sustainable raw materials and extraction and processing in Europe in terms of social, environmental and economic performance.^{[2] [3]}
• Demonstrate contribution to EU climate neutrality objectives.

Actions should develop material efficient high-quality recycling and preparation for re-use of one or more of the following end-of-life product categories/key waste streams: waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), end-of-life vehicles^[4], waste windmills^[4] and solar PV and machine tools (e.g. hard metal scrap). Rare earths permanent magnets are excluded from this topic since they are subject to a dedicated call HORIZON-CL4-2023/2024-RESILIENCE-01-08: Recyclability and resource efficiency of Rare Earth based magnets.

Their processing, reuse, recycling and recovery schemes are complex and imply different steps, ranging from collection, logistics, sorting and separation to cleaning, refining and purification of materials.

Actions should focus on the whole chain of recycling processes and procedures - from collection, logistics, characterisation, sorting, cleaning, refining and purification of secondary raw materials and quality of produced outputs.

Recycling and re-use where the recycled material is of lower quality and functionality than the original material (downcycling), is not in the scope of the topic.

Actions should acquire new data on secondary raw materials via in situ sampling from different regions across the EU, collect existing data and present in a harmonised UNFC format (United Nations Framework Classification for Resources) and develop sampling protocols, methodologies, and technologies to quantify and characterise the CRM resources in specific products, urban mines and waste repositories.

Actions should envisage clustering activities with other projects aiming at second life, re-use, repurposing, remanufacturing of products and/or components relevant selected projects for cross-projects co-operation, consultations and joint activities on cross-cutting issues and share of results as well as participating in joint meetings and communication events. To this end proposals should foresee a dedicated work package and/or task, and earmark the appropriate resources accordingly.

Actions should facilitate the market uptake of solutions developed through industrially- and user-driven multidisciplinary consortia covering the relevant value chain and should consider standardisation aspects when relevant. The action should also include the analysis of financial opportunities ensuring the market exploitation and replication of the circular business model behind the developed solutions as new processes, products and/or services.

Actions should clearly demonstrate how they contribute to a decreased level of resource and energy consumption, leading to a lower CO₂ footprint.

Proposals submitted under this topic should include a business case and exploitation strategy, as outlined in the introduction to this Destination. For TRLs 6-7, a credible strategy to achieve future full-scale deployment in the EU is expected, indicating the commitments of the industrial partners after the end of the project.

In this topic the integration of the gender dimension (sex and/or gender analysis) in research and innovation content is not a mandatory requirement, however, should you consider it to be of relevance for your specific proposal, you are strongly encouraged to do it.

Activities are expected to start at TRL 6 and achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

[1]https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/raw-materials/areas-specific-interest/critical-raw-materials_en

[2]https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/6d541f66-0f81-11ec-9151-01aa75ed71a1

[3]COM (2020) 474

[4]With the exception of permanent magnets in motors which are included in action 11: ERMA action plan on rare earths magnets: Recyclability and resource efficiency of Rare Earth based magnets

[5]With the exception of permanent magnets in motors which are included in action 11: ERMA action plan on rare earths magnets: Recyclability and resource efficiency of Rare Earth based magnets