leading the TRansion of the European Automotive SUpply chain towards a circulaR futurE

Project Information

TREASURE

Grant agreement ID: 101003587

DOI

10.3030/101003587

Project closed

EC signature date 7 May 2021

Start date 1 June 2021

End date 31 May 2024

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 3 998 714,63

EU contribution

€ 3 998 714,63

Coordinated by

POLITECNICO DI MILANO
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TREASURE (leading the TRansion of the European Automotive SUpply chain towards a circulaR futurE)

Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2024-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Car electronics is one of the most valuable sources of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) in cars. However, there is a remarkable lack of interest of carmakers (and the whole automotive value chain) towards its recovery from End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs). Especially at End-of-Life (EoL) phase, there are still many issues to be solved to functionally recover materials from cars (e.g. reuse recovered materials for the same purpose they were exploited originally) and the dependence from natural resources when producing new cars (even if electric/hybrid/fuel cell-powered) is still too high. This mandatory systemic transformation requires all companies/sectors to redefine products lifecycles since the beginning, by considering different CE approaches, and integrating design-for-disassembly and design-for-recycling approaches into the design phases. Considering together the wide number of barriers impacting on the automotive sector and the limited collaboration among actors involved in traditional automotive value chains, the transition towards CE cannot be reached so easily. From one side, Beginning-of-Life (BoL) and EoL stages are still unconnected from an information sharing perspective. This way, even if data on materials embedded in cars are known since many years, no one can exploit them. From another side, even if ELV management processes are active in Europe since the sixties, none of the actors involved in these processes is available to share their knowledge with carmakers or car part suppliers, given their unavailability to collaborate. So, both carmakers and car part suppliers cannot improve their design practices to make cars easier to disassemble and recycle. Here, TREASURE can offer a good chance for testing innovative technologies to make the automotive sector more circular. In particular, TREASURE has three main objectives:
1) The development of an AI-based scenario assessment tool supporting the development of circular supply chains in the automotive sector.
2) The representation of a set of success stories in three key value chains of the automotive industry (focusing on SMEs): 1) dismantlers/shredder; 2) recyclers and 3) manufacturers.
3) The integration of Key Enabling Technologies (KETs) for the efficient design of car electronics and subsequent disassembly and materials recovery.
4) The exploration of possible contributions to new standardization documents.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Overall, the TREASURE project achieved the following results:
1) A reference framework was developed.
2) An integrated framework for the sustainability & circularity performance assessment (LCS&CA) was developed.
3) A sustainability & circularity advisory methodology was developed.
4) An already existing semi-automated PCB disassembly station (developed during a past H2020 project) was reconfigured and optimized, in order to manage car electronics.
5) An already existing (and patented) hydrometallurgical process (developed during a past H2020 project) was reconfigured and optimized.
6) An already existing roll-to-roll line for printed electronics was reconfigured and optimized for the manufacturing of (functional) foils for in-mold electronics, leading to a demonstration of IME for automotive application.
7) End-of-life scenarios beyond metallurgy in combination with incineration of plastics for energy recovery were made possible for In-Mold Electronics by incorporating design-for-recycling principles.
8) A CEN Workshop Agreement related to Critical Raw Materials present in car electronics was implemented. This is a first step towards a new standardized procedure to recover CRMs from car electronics.
9) A policy guideline has been developed. This document presents the avareness of private citizens on car electronics topics and defines a set of issues needing for a solution from a political side.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Considering together 1) the current state of technologies adopted for managing ELVs at disassembly and recycling stages, 2) sustainability performances of automotive EoL management processes, 3) increasing amounts of embedded electronics (and CRMs) in cars and 4) output materials’ quality levels, TREASURE was the 1st project focusing on the recycling of car electronics and valorization of secondary materials recovered from it in order to increase the circularity of the whole automotive sector. Several innovations have been achieved:
1) The modular nature of the recycling pilot plant can ease the management of different mixes of car electronics within the same pilot. Being it also mobile, the pilot could be transferred where needed. Additionally, the adoption of I4.0 technologies will enable the real-time monitoring of relevant performances.
2) Current ELV recycling processes are degrading materials’ quality and forces a downcycling of materials, sometime outside the automotive sector. TREASURE exploited an innovative simulation model dedicated to material recycling (developed by MARAS) to link design with physical separation and metallurgy.
3) Secondary materials extracted from car electronics have been exploited to produce new printed electronic components and plastic parts.
4) The TREASURE platform could allow data/information sharing that could drastically ease the recovery of high-quality materials in the most appropriate way.
5) A set of standardization and policy-related activities have been implemented to make both industrials and politicians aware about the current issues of the ELV management system.
6) In terms of structural electronics, TREASURE allowed to study new disassembly processes and assess their environmental benefits. This would greatly facilitate policy development in this area.
7) TREASURE increased the EU knowledge base on secondary raw materials embedded into cars.
8) TREASURE assessed for the 1st time the car electronics lifecycle and circularity by identifying the most widely accepted methodologies, KPIs and aggregation/integration methods.
9) For the 1st time an advisory framework connected the three stages (disassembly, recycling, design) of the automotive value chain, by closing the loop through information sharing and improving the sustainability and circularity performance along the value chain.
10) A new CEN Workshop Agreement about CRMs in car electronics has been published. This official document can constitute the base for both a further discussion on the car electronics topic and the development of specific standards.

TREASURE concept