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Low-Concentration Metal Recovery from Complex Streams Using Gas-Assisted Microflow Solvent Extraction (GAME)

Low-Concentration Metal Recovery from Complex Streams Using Gas-Assisted Microflow Solvent Extraction (GAME)

The objective of this project is to develop GAME for efficient and cost- effective extraction and purification of low-concentration, high-value metals from complex streams. The successful development of this technology will contribute to the production of high- purity precious metals from end-of-life PCBs of various sources. GAME uses three phases (aqueous, organic, and gas) to achieve an efficient separation in a confined microchannel.

Project Team:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Phinix, LLC

19-01-RR-03

Condition Assessment of Used Electronics

Condition Assessment of Used Electronics

Detecting solder joint and interconnection failures on used electronics presents a serious cost challenge for remanufacturers because detection is currently completed manually. Several automated methods for detection of these failures will be examined to determine their feasibility for use in the remanufacturing industry.

Project Team:
Rochester Institute of Technology, Caterpillar Inc., CoreCentric Solutions

18-01-RM-14

Pushing the State of the Art in Steel Recycling through Innovation in Scrap Sorting and Impurity Removal

Pushing the State of the Art in Steel Recycling through Innovation in Scrap Sorting and Impurity Removal

Increasing the utility of steel scrap through innovation in sorting and impurity removal will increase the use of secondary feedstock and achieve cost parity for secondary materials for steel products. This study will investigate: 1) physical methods such as optical sorting to upgrade scrap steel and 2) chemical or metallurgical treatment methods to remove or neutralize the effect of impurities in molten steel.

Project Team:
Colorado School of Mines

18-01-RR-16

Rapid Sorting of Scrap Metals with Solid State Device

Rapid Sorting of Scrap Metals with Solid State Device

This project focuses on improving the separation of non-ferrous scrap metals from other non-ferrous metals using electrodynamic sorting (EDX) at high throughput and with greater purity and yield.

Project Team:
University fo Utah

17-FP-RR-01

Material Characterizations and Sorting Specifications That Can Allow the Development of Advanced Tire Constructions with High Incorporation of Recovered Rubber Materials

Material Characterizations and Sorting Specifications That Can Allow the Development of Advanced Tire Constructions with High Incorporation of Recovered Rubber Materials

This project seeks to improve the recycling efficiency of recovered rubber materials from used tires back into new tires, by increasing the addition of micronized rubber powder (MRP) from used tires in the production of composite polymer materials (CPM) which is used in the production of new tires. CPM is a blend of MRP and virgin rubber. Increasing the use of MRP for new tires significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions versus other tire recycling processes such as tire burning in cement kilns, crumb or reclaimed rubber manufacturing. While MRP is an attractive cost-effective option for recycling of tires, its incorporation into new tire compounds is limited to ensure that those compounds have properties equivalent to virgin polymers.

This project will develop an understanding of the properties of MRP as a function of the MRP feedstock (used tires) and processing conditions for the production of MRP. This would enable the development of specifications for sorting of used tires and grinding of the tires MRP, together with the associated formulations and tire constructions that will allow higher incorporation of MRP back into new tires without degradation in tire performance, including reliability, durability and rolling resistance. The estimated energy savings for this project are 21PJ per year.

Project Team:
Michelin, Northwestern University, Nike

18-02-RR-02

Evaluation of Logistics Systems for the Collection, Preprocessing and Production of Secondary Feedstocks from E-waste

Evaluation of Logistics Systems for the Collection, Preprocessing and Production of Secondary Feedstocks from E-waste

The objective of this project is to develop an e-waste logistics model that integrates transportation, manufacturing processes, and markets to enable optimal recovery and recycling of e-waste. The model will enable identification of least cost options for increasing e-waste collection and recycling.

Project Team:
Idaho National Laboratory, Sunnking, Inc.

18-01-RR-18

Determining Material, Environmental and Economic Efficiency of Sorting and Recycling Mixed Flexible Packaging and Plastic Wrap

Determining Material, Environmental and Economic Efficiency of Sorting and Recycling Mixed Flexible Packaging and Plastic Wrap

This project will further develop technology to recover flexible plastic film from a material recovery facility (MRF). Market opportunities for the recovered film will be examined and the resulting economic and environmental impacts will be evaluated. The technology to be developed in the project, if implemented broadly, has the potential of capturing almost 11 billion pounds of flexible plastic packaging and plastic wrap that is currently landfilled each year.

Project Team:
American Chemistry Council , Resource Recycling Systems, Idaho National Laboratory

18-01-RR-17

Biological & Bio-Mechanical Technologies for Recycled Fibers to Regain Fiber Quality and Increase Secondary Feedstock in High Value-Added Paper Grades

Biological & Bio-Mechanical Technologies for Recycled Fibers to Regain Fiber Quality and Increase Secondary Feedstock in High Value-Added Paper Grades

The goal of this project is to develop new technologies for removing contaminants from recycled paper to less than 0.5% and to develop technologies for regaining or fiber quality without using only mechanical refining. The new technologies developed will help paper recycling industry to produce much cleaner pulp and higher quality fibers so more recycled fibers can be used in place of virgin fibers in high grade paper. The new technologies developed based on new enzyme applications will also reduce the energy consumptions in both contamination removal and fiber refining process and increase the yield of the fiber recycling.

Project Team:
Western Michigan University, Idaho National Laboratory, Graphic Packaging International, WestRock Company

19-01-MM-03

Systems Analysis for PET and Olefin Polymers in a Global Circular Economy

Systems Analysis for PET and Olefin Polymers in a Global Circular Economy

This exploratory project will develop a framework for systems analysis of PET and polyolefins in the context of a circular economy. These polymeric materials are currently recycled at low rates in the U.S., but are among the largest volumes of polymeric materials that are recyclable. The objective of this project is to develop a framework that will enable analyses of factors such as new recovery technologies that might enhance the recovery and recycle of polymers including polyolefins and PET.

Project Team:
Michigan Technological University, American Chemistry Council, Idaho National Laboratory

18-01-SA-04

Quantification of Financial and Environmental Benefits Tradeoffs in Multi-Generational Product Family Development Considering Re-X Performances

Quantification of Financial and Environmental Benefits Tradeoffs in Multi-Generational Product Family Development Considering Re-X Performances

The objectives are to develop fundamental models and new design tools with capabilities of generating and comparing design for Re-X alternatives considering economic profitability and environmental impact savings. The specifics of the research objectives are to (1) identify design for reliability processes factors that are interdependent with Re-X options, thus establish models for the interdependencies, (2) integrate these interdependence models with existing reliability analysis tools so that new analysis tools could take into account Re-X options in design for reliability, (3) create a decision support system for the optimization of product family design considering reliability and Re-X options concurrently, and (4) take into account the uncertainties resulted from post design activities so that robust design tradeoff decisions can be made.

Project Team:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Iowa State University, Deere and Company, Green Electronics Council

19-01-DE-01

Mapping the Material Base for REMADE

Mapping the Material Base for REMADE

This project will develop a materials flow baseline for REMADE materials (metals, fibers, polymers, and e-waste) to support measurement of the impact of future technology improvements through REMADE projects. A harmonized and validated set of data for metals, fibers, polymers and e-waste will be developed within a consistent framework that allows comparisons of material efficiencies across REMADE materials at all life-cycle stages.

Project Team:
Yale University, Unilever, International Zinc Association, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

18-01-SA-05

Design for Remanufacturing

Design for Remanufacturing

This project is focused on working directly with remanufacturing industry leaders to create a set of pragmatic “design for remanufacturing” rules that would allow design engineers to integrate remanufacturing considerations in their component and part designs and pave the way for integration of these design rules across various engineering tools and CAD platforms currently in use to enable improvement in component and part manufacturability.

These design rules will be verified on existing parts and CAD file(s) provided by the industrial partner to identify potential changes to improve the part manufacturability.  Integration of manufacturability into the design paradigm is expected to enable an increase in remanufacturing contributing to an annual energy saving of about 50 PJ and an annual emission reduction of 3.6 million MT of CO2-eq.  

Project Team:
Rochester Institute of Technology, Caterpillar Inc., Remanufacturing Industries Council

18-02-DE-04

Development of an Industrially Relevant RE-SOLAR Design Framework

Development of an Industrially Relevant RE-SOLAR Design Framework

Solar modules are creating a major surge in e-waste because inadequate attention is focused on designing for recycling or reuse. This project provides a design framework of high-efficiency modules that can be economically recycled, recovered, remanufactured, and/or reused.

Project Team:
University of Pittsburgh, University of California-Irvine, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, First Solar

18-01-DE-07

Cross-Industry Utilization of Ground Tire Rubber for Energy Efficient Pavements

Cross-Industry Utilization of Ground Tire Rubber for Energy Efficient Pavements

This project will examine ways to better utilize ground tire rubber from recycled tires and use the particles in asphalt pavement. Ground tire rubber is currently being used as an asphalt modifier, however because of the difference in density with asphalt it suffers from inadequate storage stability, rendering it an un-preferred material in asphalt paving.

Iowa State University has developed a technology that matches ground rubber tire density with asphalt (and enables the substitution of SBS elastomers that are otherwise used in asphalt) with simple compounding techniques, producing a asphalt product that meets storage stability specifications that would be more acceptable to the paving industry.  The energy savings opportunity from this technology is estimated at 4.2 PJ per year.

Project Team:
Iowa State University, Michelin, Lehigh Technologies (Subsidiary of Michelin)

18-02-MM-03

Design Iteration Tool to Sustain Remanufacturability

Design Iteration Tool to Sustain Remanufacturability

The overall goal of this project is the development and application of a software plug-in to enable the design of components that will satisfy both EPA standards-driven light weighting efforts and parametric feature designs that enable remanufacturability (e.g., remove material where feasible for light-weighting and, at the same time, add material where needed to sustain remanufacturability). To achieve this goal, the first objective of this project is to establish a best practice approach to modify a typical design process for DfReman. The second objective is the creation of a software plugin for mainstream CAD software to enable design for remanufacturing consideration of high-value components. This tool will use realistic life estimates to automatically generate design alternatives for sustained remanufacturability, thereby reducing energy, emissions, material consumption and cost. This tool development will focus on engine cylinder heads and industrial pump components and will facilitate the generation of designs that will make components more readily available for remanufacturing processes, such as, re-machining of critical wear features for return to service, complete with estimates of cost/benefit of analysis for multiple lifecycles. The third and final objective disseminate the results of this project by developing training videos on the application of DfReman rules and the software plugin and creating a website to disseminate the plugin and training materials.

Project Team:
Iowa State University, Danfoss

19-01-DE-09

Development of a Castable High Strength Secondary Aluminum Alloy from Recycled Wrought Aluminum Scrap

Development of a Castable High Strength Secondary Aluminum Alloy from Recycled Wrought Aluminum Scrap

This project lays out an approach to develop a new process for recycling aerospace (AA7075) aluminum scrap into a high strength castable aluminum alloy. The project will focus on developing approaches to overcome the technical challenges (such as hot tearing and macrosegregation) which limit industry’s ability to process and use up to 35,000 metric tons of aluminum scrap. The expected energy benefits are estimated at 6.5 PJ per year with an emissions reduction of about 370,000 metric tons per year.

Project Team:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Eck Industries Inc.

18-02-MM-09

18-02-MM-09

A Dynamic Techno-economic Systems Modeling Framework for U.S. Fiber Recycling

A Dynamic Techno-economic Systems Modeling Framework for U.S. Fiber Recycling

This project will model and test the U.S. fiber recycling industry – specifically for paper and paperboard – to improve its long-term profitability and increase its environmental benefits. 

The project will provide a virtual testbed that will explore resilience to volatility in scrap quantities, quality, markets, and prices, and consider changes to current and future recycling capacities and technologies in order to increase domestic fiber recycling by 15% or more.

Project Team:
Northwestern University, Yale University, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries

18-02-SA-02

CombiClean™: Facilitating Contaminant Removal in Recycled Plastics

CombiClean™: Facilitating Contaminant Removal in Recycled Plastics

The objective of the project is to develop a hyperspectral data base to enable more effective sorting and cleaning of secondary plastics feedstocks. The project will produce several tangible outcomes. An open source database, CombiClean™, will be developed, disseminated and archived in a publicly available repository. Hyperspectral characterization (combined FTIR, Raman, and LIBS) for model systems in virgin, contaminated, and cleaned conditions will be collected. Generated data will be used to train machine learning algorithms and demonstrate improved sorting. High throughput methods will be used to develop customized cleaning solutions based on specific contaminants incorporating enzymes. A process model will be populated by the cleaning data. Process economics and life-cycle impacts will be calculated to compare the new optimized processes against the present baseline of simple caustic/surfactants at high temperatures.

Project Team:
Michigan State University, Sealed Air

19-01-MM-02

Identifying strategies to maximize benefit of fiber recovery through systems quantification

Identifying strategies to maximize benefit of fiber recovery through systems quantification

This project will analyze the system‐wide economic and environmental implications of changes in the recovery of fibers. The project will use a dynamic modeling framework that integrates material flow analysis, life cycle inventories, and technical cost modeling to inform potential ideas for cost‐effective fiber recovery approaches.

A goal of this project is for REMADE members to more accurately determine the energy and emissions benefits associated with paper and paperboard recovery.  

Project Team:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The American Forest & Paper Association, WestRock, Graphic Packaging

18-02-SA-05

Data-Driven Design Decision Support for Re-X of High-Value Components in Industrial and Agricultural Equipment

Data-Driven Design Decision Support for Re-X of High-Value Components in Industrial and Agricultural Equipment

This project will create a tool to evaluate and recommend the optimal designs of components in industrial and agricultural equipment. By designing components with optimum material utilization and end-of-life in mind, there is a 60% reduction in carbon emissions.

The novelty of this tool lies in its ability to incorporate real-world load/component health data that has been acquired by condition monitoring systems in the field into early-stage design assessment using random variable models. This approach enables data-informed design for Re-X.

Project Team:
Iowa State University, John Deere

18-02-DE-06

 

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