Speakers from the Conference 2021 - Day 1
Peter Woodward
Facilitator
Peter Woodward is in high demand across Europe and internationally for his skills as an independent facilitator. His engaging personality and twenty years of experience combine to lift the normal conference or workshop experience to new levels of energy and value. He enables both clients and participants achieve outcomes beyond their expectations in a relaxed yet purposeful manner.
As Co-founder and Director of Quest Associates his clients include the European Commission and national governments, public agencies, businesses, universities and civil society organisations.
Conference Welcome
Árni Halldórsson
Professor Supply Chain Management
Department of Technology Management & Economics
Chalmers University of Technology
“The Nordic Approach” – The Nordic region as the most sustainable and integrated region in the world 2030
The importance of awareness-raising, piloting and cross-border cooperation to achieve the transformation.
Marthe Haugland
Senior Innovation Advisor at Nordic Innovation
Her primary focus is on the transition to circular economy in the Nordics, through initiating projects that can spur innovation and entrepreneurship in Nordic companies. The main areas are circular cities, new solutions and the use of circular business models. Nordic Innovation is part of the Nordic Council of Ministers, who’s vision is that the Nordics should be the most integrated and sustainable region in the world in 2030.
Creating a global impact with local circular economies
Precious Plastic develops open source recycling machines, products, and online tools to empower anyone to start recycling plastic locally. Today our global community is made up of over 400 organizations around the world using our machines and techniques to turn plastic waste into new valuable local products. Together we have a global impact through building local circular plastic economies.
Joseph Klatt
Operations at Precious Plastic
As lead of operations, Joseph is helping scale Precious Plastic's global community of local recycling workspaces into a network of financially sustainable small businesses turning plastic waste into beautifully crafted products. He has spent the last 8 years in the public and private sector facilitating sustainable recycling and waste management practices.
Building the world's greenest batteries
Dr Emma Nehrenheim
Chief Environmental Officer Northvolt
Emma did her PhD in the area of industrial waste products and waste water. She thereafter engaged in numerous R&D project with the industry until she became a Professor in Environmental Engineering. She also spent a few years in ABB, focusing on disruptive solutions and business models for the utility segment. Dr Nehrenheim has been in Northvolt since 2017 and has led and built the environmental and sustainability track. As Chief Environmental Officer, she is running the factory sustainability, global business sustainability as well as the newly established business unit Revolt which will bring LIB's recycling into the raw material strategy of Northvolt.
USE-REMANUFACTURING-REUSE-RECYCLE => OBSERVATIONS FOR LI-ON BATTERIES
Rasmus Bergström
Executive Director, Stena Recycling Group/Managing Director BatteryLoop
Rasmus has been working with WEEE at Stena since 2007, and during number of years responsible for the European operations at Stena Metall for all WEEE. Stena Recycling is one of the leading WEEE recyclers in Europe and a leading player for the ELV directive with recycling of over 240.000 cars per year. The electrification era changes the business and Stena Recycling takes an active part in the transition with a circular offering. What observations can be seen on the global market? Rasmus will give Stena’s observations and ideas for the future.
Transforming the future with Circular Economy at Volvo Car Group
Abstract: The disruptive shifts in the automotive industry are multiple as we speak. Digitalization, Electrification, Autonomy and Sustainability are all key subjects that will transform our industry in a way never seen before. As Volvo Cars have signed on to the Paris agreement; our journey to becoming carbon neutral is under way. A key factor to reach this target is transitioning into a circular business. Today we will provide some insight into how we start the transition and where we hope it will lead us.
James Lundström
Head of Circular Economy at Volvo Cars
AI as an enabler for the circular economy
During the conference, Klas will present an assignment carried out for Vinnova and the strategic innovation program Re:Source with the aim of investigating and prioritizing AI efforts for circular economy in Sweden.
Klas will also be involved in conference workshops and looks forward to fruitful discussions in the Chalmers Industriteknik stand in the exhibition area.
Klas Cullbrand
Director of Circular Economy group, Chalmers Industriteknik
Klas is leading the circular economy efforts at Chalmers Industriteknik. With many years of experience helping recyclers, manufacturers, NGOs, agencies, industry organisation etc. in their efforts to become more circular Klas leads the group with focus on circular logistics, circular business models, circular technology and circular design.
Bengt Eliasson
Bengt has a background as intrapreneur / entrepreneur and often act as the "catalyst" that connect the dots between Strategy, Tactics, Technology, Data and Operations. With 20+ years’ experience from the Retail and Technology sector ( IBM - Unilever - ICA etc ) he now spends more of his time supporting the circular movement of consumption and production, enabled by AI.
Go Nature. Go Carton. A visionary and circular approach to Beverage cartons
Imagine a world where all beverage cartons are collected for recycling – that is our visionary approach in line with our 2030 strategy. We don’t have all the answers for how to get there but we know our efforts to contribute to a low carbon circular economy will be one important step. Benefiting of a foundation of sustainably sourced renewable materials with low climate impact, whilst stepping up innovations and collaborations to increase renewability and recyclability further and to develop recycling solutions we are confident we will create the package for the future.
Helena Lindh
Market Sustainability Expert at Tetra Pak
Helena Lindh, Market Sustainability Expert at Tetra Pak North Europe, drives to improve collection, sorting and recycling infrastructure and capacity and to engage and increase consumer awareness in recycling across Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. Helena has been working with packaging, sustainability, and circularity for more than 12 years with a strong drive to contribute to a brighter future through sustainable packaging that makes food safe and available everywhere. She has her background within Academia with a PhD in Packaging Logistics from Lund University. Her thesis “Sustainable Packaging of Organic Food – Myth or Reality?” explore and elaborate on the potential contribution of packaging to sustainable development.
Metals for a sustainable future
Boliden is an integrated company with mines and smelters and is one of the world's largest recyclers of electronics and the Nordic region's largest recycler of lead batteries, which makes Boliden an important part of the circular economy.
The green transition will require much more of Boliden’s metals, not least copper for the electrification of society. Boliden must make sure that these metals are produced in the most sustainable way possible.
Johan Andersson describes Boliden’s sustainable metal production with a low carbon footprint, sustainable waste handling and maximization of material recovery, using both primary raw materials from mines, and recycled material from urban mining.
Johan Andersson
Strategy & Business Intelligence Manager, Boliden Smelters
Johan Andersson has an academic background in business administration and is Strategy & Business Intelligence Manager at Boliden Smelters, focusing on the forming and implementation of the business area’s strategy.
Prior to joining Boliden, Johan was Trade Commissioner for Sweden in Chile, where his responsibility was to support Swedish companies in their internationalization in South America.
Innovative solutions to improve WEEE traceability
WEEE management systems currently suffers relevant shortcomings. Only about 35% of domestic WEEE in Europe is collected through official schemes. A similar problem arises within the professional WEEE system context. The instrument that can help in improving the amount of WEEE properly managed is identified in traceability solutions. This paper presents the results achieved by two research projects: BlockWEEE and InnoWEEE that, aiming to improve future WEEE management, verify the effectiveness of innovative tracking technologies and approaches by combining blockchain, digital technologies and on-field activities.
Luca Campadello
Projects & Innovation Manager at Erion
He is the Projects & Innovation Manager responsible for activities on circular economy. He earned his Mechanical MSc from Politecnico di Milano University. He coordinates projects with Erion members and researches (H2020, EIT raw materials, Climate-KIC) that involves the Consortium.
The Lithium- Ion Battery Recycling Market
Hans Eric Melin
Circular Energy Storage
The Future Challenges of a sustainable electrification
Pavel Calderon will lead an in-depth session about our future challenges of our sustainable future. How is our transport and power segment developing, what future challenges need to be met? How do we meet the the urgent need for actions against climate change, while keeping a responsible and just battery value chain?
Pavel Calderon
Nortical
Nortical is developing a software tool for understanding degradation of battery performance and battery value degradation.
The Fate of Lithium-ion batteries for Vehicles in the Nordic Countries
This study used statistics and literature data and found that the large volumes of lithium-ion batteries in vehicles will start to reach their end-of-life by 2030 in the Nordic countries, and if second-life will become common, even later. Therefore only very small amounts of recycled metals can currently be used for battery production in Europe and also the recycling techniques need to be improved in order to become resource efficient. The study was financed by the Nordic Waste Group under the Nordic Council of Ministers.
Lisbeth Dahllöf
A senior project leader and researcher at IVL Swedish Environmental Institute.
She has a licentiate degree in Environmental Technology and her area of competence is mainly within LCA, environmental aspects of electromobility and recycling, eco-design in the automotive industry and circular economy.
Boosting the Circular Economy of Li-ion batteries via development of sustainable recycling
Martina Petranik's presentation will give a perspective on the sources expected for battery production in upcoming years, current development in future battery chemistry and effects of this development on the material supply and recycling needs. The presentation will highlight the information on current recycling activities in the academia and industry with respect to their contribution to circular economy. Moreover, Industrial Materials Recycling group research activities and achievements in this field will be presented.
Martina Petranikova
Assistant Professor, Nuclear Chemistry and Industrial Materials Recycling, Chalmers University of Technology
Recipo Group closing the loop on plastic from electronics
China closed its borders to plastic waste. Plastic from WEEE wasn’t being taken care of efficiently within the EU and still 75% of all plastic from WEEE still leaves the EU where control is not guaranteed. This is how Recipo adapted to the changes to close the loop on plastic from WEEE.
Michael Fahd
Quality Manager Recipo Material
Graduating from the University of Western Sydney (BA in Theatre & Film) and the University of Technology Sydney (MA in Writing), Michael has enjoyed an illustrious career in film and television production, predominantly located in Australia. His passion lies in both storytelling, and the future sustainability of our planet. Hence, Michael did not hesitate to join Recipo Material’s team, allowing for the merging of his two interests. Reshaping the recycling narrative is key to increasing circularity, as well as growth within the industry. Thinking beyond what is currently possible to effect lasting environmental change is the driving force behind Michael’s continued work in helping to solve the global waste crisis.
An Asian perspective on Plastics Recycling and Utilization of Circular Economy
Asia region has seen fastest economic growth rates in the world. The plastic production and consumption have been booming alongside while the development of effective waste management system. Recognizing the growing problem of plastics waste has become one of the major issues in Asia-Pacific region. Around 8 million tons of plastics waste ends up in our ocean from urban areas leaks into natural drainage and rivers. Among 10 most polluted rivers, 8 rivers are flowing in Asia-Pacific region that contribute roughly 90 percent of plastics waste in the ocean. In addition, the world’s recyclable plastics waste is being shipped to Asia and leads to illegal operations such as open dumping and open burning, contaminating water supplies, killing crops and causing respiratory illnesses. Underscoring the multiple benefits of plastic recycling and utilization of circular economic development approach through effective 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) policies and programmes help towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, particularly, aim of SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), sustainable and effective use of natural resources and aim of SDG 14 (Life Below Water), to manage and protect marine and coastal environment from pollution.
Anupam Khajuria
Researcher, United Nations Centre for Regional Development in Nagoya, Japan
Anupam Khajuria is working in United Nations Centre for Regional Development where she contributes in organizing the annual High-level Policy Forum, Regional 3R Forum in Asia Pacific region since 2014. She conducts research on how 3Rs (reduce, reuse and recycle) and advanced circular economy integrate towards resource efficient policies, plans and improved infrastructures towards sustainable development in Asia-Pacific region.
Earlier, Anupam received her PhD in Environmental Engineering at Osaka University in 2010 and carried on a post- doctoral research at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan before joining UNCRD.
Standardisation landscape for circular plastic industry
Standardisation have traditionally been a tool initiated and created by and for the industry. In the new circular economy for plastics the need is originated from public community and the political side. The lack of a common understanding about plastic and circularity is clearly monitored by regulations established without having definitions in place. I will talk about the mapped standardisation necessity for the coming years for plastic and what is in the pipeline.
Kristin Geidenmark Olofsson
Director Regulatory Affairs & Strategic Innovation, Trioplast Group
I have more than 30 years of experience in the polymer industry, within rubber, textile and plastics, and all combination of these materials. Companies I have worked for is for example Trelleborg, Ansell and Nolato, prior to me joining Trioplast 4 years ago. The last 20 years my focus have been within development and innovation, but also covering Production Management, Product Management and Key Account Management. My covering has been global, managing the start-up of production of rubber coated technical textiles in Shanghai, built the foundation for a development hub for Protective Clothing in Xiamen, just to mention some.
The SirkulærPlast project: realising circular innovation in Norway
The SirkulærPlast project (2017-2020) has worked towards innovation in circular plastic materials based on three real-life cases covering three different thermoplastic materials: high density polyethylene (HDPE), Polypropylene (PP) and glass-reinforced nylon (PA6.6). The project was financed by project partners and the Oslofjordfond Regional Research fund, Norway. The companies involved have a healthy collaboration network, despite sometimes being competitors in a fiercely cost-driven market. The SirkulærPlast project consortium included actors from the whole circular life-cycle required for products. Central activities in the project were quality testing and environmental accounting (LCA) work to inform innovation. The participants have learnt a lot about the benefits, challenges and some solutions for using recycled materials in practice. Sharing the knowledge built up during this research project is important and the platform for this will be presented.
Cecilia Askham
PhD, Senior Researcher, NORSUS
Cecilia has over 20 years’ experience in sustainability and life-cycle assessment, with particular expertise in toxicity assessments of products, EcoDesign, LCA and environmental assessments of waste and energy systems. Plastics and recycling are a particular area of current interest. She is currently leading, or performing research activities in several consortium projects relevant to Circular Materials, including SirkulærPlast, PacKnoPlast and FuturePack.
Closing the gaps to enable increased circularity of plastics
Meeting the EU targets of at least 50% recycling of all plastic packaging by 2025 is a significant challenge. Other value chains as those related to vehicles and appliances do not even been set a recycling target for plastics. The current uptake of recycled plastics in new products is low, and even if significant packaging volumes are “recycle ready” monomaterial packaging, their post-consumer recyclates (PCR) are in many instances “downcycled” unless necessary actions are taken to facilitate a truly circular life cycle. The presentation will provide viable strategies with industry examples on how to increase the value creation and circularity by improved material and product design. Solutions to specific challenges in the plastics recycling processes, like sorting and formulation of additive packages, will be addressed and supported by experimental data from ongoing collaborative research projects.
Thor Kamfjord
Director Sustainable Development, Norner AS
Thor Kamfjord has been working for the polymer and plastics industry for the last 24 years, having different roles within R&D, application development and innovation management.
He holds a M.Sc in Industrial Chemistry/Polymer Science, and started his career in the plastics industry working with material and market development for consumer and industrial applications in Borealis. Thor took part in the management who established Norner in 2007, which has grown into an international innovation centre providing industrial R&D services and consultancy to the global plastics industry. From 2007-2011, he was representing the Norwegian Plastics industry in the board of Plastretur/Grønt Punkt Norge pushing the importance of recovery and recycling of used packaging.
Transformation of existing petrochemical clusters into thermochemical recycling plants
To approach circular usage of plastic, two aspects need to be considered, the feedstock supply for production of virgin plastic and todays insufficient recycling both in quantity and quality. Chemical feedstock recycling can address both by replacing virgin fossil feedstock with plastic waste. Correctly integrated into a chemical cluster the existing production line can be transformed from a linear to a circular material flow.
This transformation is discussed based on the on the example of the Stenungsund chemical cluster where an introduction in four consecutive implementation steps from today’s virgin fossil feedstock-based production into a cluster that is based on PW is proposed.
Martin Seemann
Project leader and senior researcher
Interested in the hidden pathways of thermochemical and catalytic mechanisms, Martin has focused the last 15 years of his research on thermal conversion processes. His work is characterized by experimental research at relevant scale and guided by the overall aim for application of knowledge in industrial collaborations.
Obstacles and promoters for use of secondary materials
Millions of tons of solid waste with technical properties suitable for use in building and construction, are still disposed of in landfills or used for low grade recycling. Challenges posed by logistics, business models, discrepancies in policies and regulation, technical standards per se, as well as environmental risks are strongly contributing factors to meegre high-grade recycling rates. For the Swedish innovation platform RE:Source, we designed, developed and conducted a strategic project with focus on potential promoters and obstacles within these factors, for recycling of secondary raw materials in bulding and construction (focus ashes and concrete).
The project resulted in suggestions for strategic steps to be taken to increase efficient use of secondary materials, with the following topics: “Way forward to End-of-Waste”, “Business models for (heavy) secondary raw materials”, “A national strategy for resource efficiency”, and “Utilize technical guidelines and norms”.
Martijn van Praagh
R&D manager at AFRY, Malmö, Sweden
He is a part-time lecturer at CEC, Centre for Climate and Environmental Research at Lund University. Martijn’s focus in research, teaching and consulting is environmental impact of solid waste and material management, especially reuse of secondary materials. He has a degree in Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering from Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH) and a PhD in Water Resources Engineering from Lund University.
Linus Brander
Senior Scientist and Project leader at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, Borås, southwestern Sweden.
His background includes one year as geology lecturer at University of Gothenburg, several years as field (mapping) geologist for the Swedish Geological Survey (SGU), and commission concerning development of XRF-technique in metal exploration. Mr Branders present focus in research and consulting is (chemical, mineralogical, physical and mechanical) material properties of primary and secondary mineral resources, in relation to application as aggregate, dimension stone, concrete, cement and other industrial uses. He has degrees in Chemistry (BSc) and Geology (MSc), and a PhD in Mineralogy & Petrology, all from the University of Gothenburg. From 2019 and onward, he is the Swedish expert in CEN/TC 104 Task Group on recycled aggregates, appointed by the Swedish Mirror committee TK190.
Recycling of plastic pipes in large scale
Every year large amounts of plastic pipes are installed in buildings and infrastructure in Sweden. Installation scrap is of very high quality and could be recycled to produce new pipes as demonstrated in the research project Re-pipe. Collection and recycling to new pipes have then been demonstrated in a continuation project along the value chain together with 32 partners. Pipes made of recycled materials were installed in a pre-school in Göteborg during the fall of 2020. Many challenges in collection and recycling arose on the way and emphasized the importance of communication in all recycling steps.
Anna Jansson
PhD and Research Scientist at RISE with expertise in recycling and durability of plastics.
Bio-Based Construction Materials during Service- and End-of-Life in a Circular Economy
The construction industry has a strong responsibility to contribute to a more efficient use of natural resources. Nowadays it is by far the most resource intense industry sector, approximately 40-50% of all primary raw materials are used. In this context and as a result of the Paris Climate agreement the Dutch government defined the program “Nederland Circulair in 2050”, which states the ambition to use 50% less primary materials in 2030 and to have a full circular economy in 2050. Based on that the research on natural fiber reinforced composites has got a lot of progress in recent years and promise interesting application in the construction industry.
Prof. Patrick Teuffel
Professor Innovative Structural Design, Eindhoven University of Technology
Patrick has a background as a structural engineer and he practices with his Berlin-based consultancy in various construction projects and he is a professor for Innovative Structural Design at Eindhoven University of Technology. The focus of his research is on the development of innovative materials, such as bio-based composites for architectural and structural engineering applications.
Circular strategies for bio-based composite materials in four market segments
A transition to a circular and biobased economy that also increases Sweden’s collective innovation ability requires competence in numerous disciplines and technologies, as well as knowledge in the biomass and in value chain organization. The biobased composite materials were tailored to perform in the market segments of paper-based bottles, high-performance biobased sheet moulded compounds for vehicle components, novel prosthetics and accessories, and compression-moulded furniture and interiors components. The project demonstrators were set in the context of circular business models. We analysed how the companies working in each market segment work today with circular strategies and what needs to be implemented in the future to realize the benefits of a circular economy.
Tatjana Karpenja
RISE
Tatjana is a project manager Sustainability & Digitalisation at RISE with 13 year expertise in sustainability and circular economy within value cycles of biobased materials. She is leading RISE’s collaboration initiative on sustainable circular packaging, and is the member of the BioLyftet expert team that educates and coaches SME:s in biobased and recyclable materials. She is working as evaluation partner in international multi-disciplinary projects by applying sustainability and circularity strategies and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
Resource efficient use of fibre reinforced polymers
Fibre reinforced polymers have excellent strength and weight properties, resulting in a greatly increasing amount of applications in the transport and construction industry. The recycling of these complex composites is often inadequate and is primarily based on energy recovery with limited material recycling of the fibres. New environmental legislation aimed at limiting the use of fossil resources and improving waste management creates a demand for appropriate recycling technologies. In order to improve the resource efficiency of fibre reinforced polymers, efficient reuse and recycling is of great importance. In this project efficient use of both carbon and glass fibre reinforced polymers are evaluated, i.e. reduction of waste within the production facility, alternative applications as well as material recycling via pyrolysis which allows recovery of both high-quality fibres and polymers.
Ann-Christine Johansson
Researcher at RISE, Bioeconomy and health
Johansson has a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Luleå University of Technology and has worked within the research field of thermochemical conversion, primary pyrolysis, of biomass and plastic waste for over 10 years.
Future of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composites - enabling materials' sustainable value cycles
Fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composites are considered to be the construction materials of the future, but today's limited ability to recycle FRP composites creates a barrier to their use as a sustainable material. The same structural features that determine the attractive properties of FRP composites make them difficult to recycle. The problem is not only of a technical nature, but also due to the peculiarities of the composites market. So far, the amounts of end-of-life FRP composites have been relatively small and incentives too weak to drive the development from the linear model (landfill and incineration) to a circular approach (reuse and recycling). Today’s fast-growing market is forcing players to act and create circular flows of FRP composites. The market is in urgent need of a sustainable and economically feasible system solution. Findings from the recently completed project financed by RE:Source will be presented.
Lena Smuk
Senior Researcher and Project Manager
Lena Smuk works as a senior researcher and expert on materials recycling at the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. Prior to joining RISE (SP) in January 2013, she gathered experience in different fields - doing scientific research at Aalto University and the Royal Institute of Technology, working at Alfa Laval as a technical expert, and being a founder and CEO of two cleantech startups - prize winners of Venture Cup and Cleantech competitions. Apart from holding PhD degree in solid state physics and materials science, she has 20 years’ experience in optimization of material recovery from complex waste streams. Her primary research interest is in creating resource-efficient circular flows of polymer-based materials through combining mechanical and thermochemical material recycling. Lena leads R&D activities in the area of feedstock/thermochemical recycling of polymers in frames of RISE Competence Platform "Circular Economy".
Circular Manufacturing Systems: An essential paradigm shift for the manufacturing industry
The manufacturing industry is a major consumer of the energy and material resources generating significant amount of waste. Circular manufacturing systems (CMS) that are designed intentionally for closing the loop of products or components through multiple lifecycles are indispensable for sustainable development. For a successful implementation of CMS, a systemic approach integrating business models, product design, and supply chains while exploiting information and communication technology as a system enabler is essential. This work explores the concept of CMS, their characteristics and needs in the context of a circular economy. It also analyses industrial practices of CMS implementation and challenges in scaling up to realise the full business and sustainability potential. Moreover, an outlook on complex systems modelling and simulation for enhanced decision-making in the context of CMS is presented.
Malvina Roci
PhD candidate, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Malvina is a PhD candidate in Production Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Her research is focused on developing analysis methods and tool to support manufacturing industry in its transition from linear to circular manufacturing systems that are economically viable and environmentally sustainable. In particular, she works with complex systems modelling and simulation for enhanced decision-making in the context of circular manufacturing systems.
Utilization of mineral side streams in high-value application: case study
Mining wastes from mining and mineral processing industry represent one of the largest mineral side streams flows. Due to the huge volumes, they are seen as one potential resource to be utilized on the way towards circular economy, resource efficiency and profitable business. This paper presents a case study of the feasibility of talc ore mining tailings as raw material for high-value application: as electrical insulation ceramic coating.
Marjaana Karhu
Working as Senior Scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
She has over 13 years’ working experience on research and development as scientist and as project manager at VTT. She has worked for materials development, materials processing and performance with recent years’ focus on circular economy solutions and especially mineral side streams utilization in high-value applications.
Cirular Flooring- Obstacles and promoters for use of secondary materials
The EU-funded project Circular Flooring aims to enable circular use of plasticized PVC from post-consumer floor coverings by further developing recycling processes that eliminate legacy phthalic acid esters, such as DEHP. The project results will be demonstrated via the production of high quality recycled PVC at TRL 5-6, reprocessing of eliminated plasticizers to new phthalate-free plasticizers and re-use of recycled polymers and additives in new flooring applications. Waste flooring will be subjected to the patented CreaSolv® Process, which dissolves plasticised PVC from the material mix and eliminates undissolved matter as well as co-dissolved plasticizers in an extractive purification step.
Melanie Schulte
Bavarian Research Alliance GmbH
Create circular streams from GFRP composite waste
Glass fiber composite (GFRP) waste is a growing global environmental problem since waste from wind, boat, automotive and construction industries go to landfill or incineration. Our projects aim to take a larger perspective on the problem: End-of-Life and manufacturing GFRP waste should be recycled through solvolysis/HTL in order to generate new circular material flows. To lay the grounds for future implementation of the solvolysis technology in a circular value chain, material flows from industries such as wind power, boat and construction industries need to be mapped and future recycled products and value chains will be evaluated regarding their profitability and impact on the environment.
Cecilia Mattsson
Scientist, Division Material and Production, RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.
Cecilia’s area of expertise is chemical recycling of polymers and circular economy based design of composites.
Circular Design Network in Finland
Sustainable development calls for circular design in order to extend product lifetime and closing the material loops. However, there is circularity data gaps and lack of understanding about the system level circularity driven impacts and benefits. Example, the material real time situation awareness during the lifecycle, followed by predictions and updates of the lifetime and state of health supports the implementation of the lifetime extension strategies. Therefore, The Circular Design Network in Finland builds the understanding about the data gabs related to circularity driven design targets, and further develops novel methods to define data into system level knowledge. Furthermore, studies focusses on the detailed circular design concepts, material flow visibility and requirements of circular design.
Päivi Kivikytö-Reponen
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland
She has totally over 20 years' working experience in academy, industry and RTO on research and development positions from project management to team leadership. She has worked for circular materials development, materials performance, and maintenance & lifecycle management. She is actively targeting to combining digital solutions with sustainable lifecycles and circular development.
Critical Raw Material Circularity for Solar Cell Technologies and Material Recycling Options
How can we organize a sustainable raw material supply for solar cell technologies? What will happen to the waste created from solar energy? The solar cell industry demands different valuable and critical raw materials depending on photovoltaic (PV) technology, such as indium, copper, gallium, tellurium, and silver. Considering the solar cell market and progress in PV technology, the resource limitation is a significant challenge to achieve the solar energy production target. Specifically, the future supply of silver is the bottleneck of the solar energy industry unless a substitute metal is found, though a small amount of silver is used as a conductive grid on solar cells.
Burçak Ebin
Researcher, Nuclear Chemistry and Industrial Material Recycling, Chalmers University of Technology.
He received PhD degree with thesis on the development of nanostructured cathode particles for Li-ion batteries at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey in 2014. He has been working as a researcher at Nuclear Chemistry and Industrial Materials Recycling Group at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden since 2014. His research fields are recycling of valuable metals from different waste streams such as solar cells, batteries, mining and metallurgical production waste using a combination of high temperature, hydrometallurgical and supercritical fluid technologies.
The role of ICT in Circular Economy enabled Product Life Cycle Management
Circular Economy proposes the idea of replacing the end of life management by intentionally designed regenerative systems and multiple life cycle products. Implementing this concept requires modification in various stages of a product life cycle, such as redesigning the product in its beginning of the life (BoL), providing service and maintenance while the product is in use in its middle of the life (MoL) and avoiding disposal by reusing or remanufacturing it at the end of life (EoL). Making these changes requires interactive information exchange through different life cycle stages and managing a heterogeneous collaborative environment of various stakeholders and experts. To enable this process Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can play a significant role.
Niloufar Salehi
P.h.D student in Production Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Niloufar Salehi a P.h.D student in Production Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on developing analysis methods and decision support tools to help manufacturing systems transition from linear to circular systems. Furthermore, she is working on developing a systematic approach to implement ICT in the context of Industrial Symbiosis to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency of the system.
Environmental services by a multipurpose biorefinery
Large volumes of water are needed when producing pulp and paper generating significant amounts of process effluent. In this work, we wish to address the potential of utilizing effluent streams to develop a novel multipurpose biorefinery cascade concept. The biorefinery concept produces four products in a cascade process:
1) biohydrogen, 2) biopolymers, 3) sustainable feed ingredients for aquaculture and 4) clean water. The cascade concept aims to exploit the ability of microorganisms to valorise wastewater and biosludge, to turn low-value waste into high-value resource within or outside the mill.
Sudhanshu Pawar
Researcher and technology developer at RISE, Research Institutes of Sweden
Experienced Researcher and technology developer working at RISE since 2017. Have done PhD in Applied Microbiology. Have expertise in developing different bioprocesses from idea-to lab and from lab- to pilot-, demo-scale. Have successfully scaled-up biological sulfate reduction and biological hydrogen production technologies together with industrial partners.
“The challenges to become circular” – large investments needed to cope with the transition from linear to circular
Packaging, plastics, textiles – almost all materials need to rethink the way business is done. To become more circular many stakeholders in society needs to invest in new systems. But who will take the first steps?
Jon Haag
Chief Circular Officer at &REPEAT
Jon has been working with packaging sustainability for decades. After several years of heading innovation at BillerudKorsnäs and StoraEnso and leading the Business & Innovation area of Material Transition at RISE, the Research Institute of Sweden he has now jumped into the start-up world. As Chief Circular Officer at &REPEAT he is focusing on developing circular solutions that will increase true recycling levels of food service packaging. By building completely new packaging value cycles and incentivizing all involved stakeholders, from packaging producers via consumers and on to recyclers to close the packaging circle – Together.