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Funding: NWO
Project duration: 2023-2031
Global material extraction has tripled to 90 billion tons since the 1970s at a doubling of population, and is expected to rise a further 2 to 3 fold by 2050. Competition on resource supply is clearly rising. The EU identifies 30 raw materials as ‘critical’: economically crucial, and with a high supply risk. Electronic products are one of the most important application areas of critical raw materials. These products mostly feature a rapid innovation cycle combined with a relatively short lifetime. The resulting challenge is that these products, after the use phase, are creating the world’s fastest growing waste stream next to plastics, especially within the consumer electronics sector.
This project will develop a fully circular generation of electronics on a component, printed circuit board (PCB) and product level, eliminating the concept of e-waste; leading to strongly improved lifetimes and closed product, component and material loops; drastically reducing the need for primary (critical) materials. The project will make a pivotal contribution to the Dutch Government program ‘Netherlands Circular by 2050’. The circular innovations will result in substantial savings of raw materials and energy as well as the creation of sustainable jobs.
The project will develop solutions to overcome technical, economic and societal bottlenecks for lifetime extension, reuse, repair, refurbishment and recycling through development of a new generation of electronic components, product-service design, new business models and advanced recycling technology. This will be based on use cases that can be considered illustrative for circular use of electronics at large, focusing on sectors with a high societal and economic importance. Product groups covered are:
- Communication infrastructure, including data processing devices, networks, ICT equipment
- Telecommunication consumer electronics, with a focus on smartphones
- Lighting, with a focus on LED systems in public and office spaces
- Power electronics, with a focus on complex machines like those used for EUV lithography
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