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Automation for Remanufacturing of Battery Modules

Automation for Remanufacturing of Battery Modules

This project seeks to develop an automation process, enabled by a computer vision system and robotic arms for facilitating routine disassembly and human-in-the-loop, to enable a more flexible, safer, and more efficient LIB disassembly process. Upon completion, this project will deliver the capability to identify damaged and severely degraded modules using electrical test and thermal imaging, a process for high-value assessment of the entire battery pack using electrical tests, and elements for automation of the pack disassembly such as robotic removal of battery pack fasteners. This project will increase recovery of secondary feedstock by 0.198 MMT, save 33PJ of embodied energy, reduce GHG by 2.12 MMT of CO2, based on a doubling of the current reman rate for current EV production of 3.1 million cars.

Project Team:
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), BigBattery

21-01-RM-5039

Development of Hybrid Repair and Nondestructive Evaluation Technologies for Aerospace Components

Development of Hybrid Repair and Nondestructive Evaluation Technologies for Aerospace Components

The objective of this project is to develop an integrated hybrid DED/insitu multi-modal data acquisition and NDE modeling of DED repairs for aerospace materials (i.e. medium carbon low alloy steel and a nickel-based superalloy) to increase the successful repair and reuse of these materials. This proposed project is a continuation exploratory project 18-01-RM-09.  

The final product will be a complete software package that can automatically perform multi-modal (surface topography and thermal imaging) in-situ data acquisition (residual stresses) and nondestructive evaluation (NDE) analysis for industry users without expertise in 3D scanning, thermal imaging, and XRD. This project will create embodied energy savings of 1.56PJ and GHG emissions reduction of 0.0915MMT of CO2, based on an increase in successful repair of 0.021MMT of aerospace parts such as turbine shafts.

Project Team:
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Iowa State University (ISU), The Ohio State University (OSU), Simufact, Hybrid Manufacturing Tech, Proto Mfg. Inc., Pratt & Whitney

21-01-RM-5062

Enabling Cross-industry Reuse of Comingled Waste Plastics as Quality Asphalt Modifier for Sustainable Pavement

Enabling Cross-industry Reuse of Comingled Waste Plastics as Quality Asphalt Modifier for Sustainable Pavement

This project seeks to evaluate reactive feedstock pre-treatment and to develop real-time process measurements to increase post-consumer and post-industrial polyolefin film waste utilization.

Project Team:
University of Tennessee - Knoxville, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Paragon Technical Services Inc. (a subsidiary of Ergon Asphalt and Emulsions, Inc.)

20-01-MM-4044

Efficient Purification and Reuse of Carbon Black Recovered from End-of-Life Tires

Efficient Purification and Reuse of Carbon Black Recovered from End-of-Life Tires

This project seeks to develop process technology to recover a low-ash content high-quality carbon black from end-of-life tire rubber.

Project Team:
University of Utah, Idaho National Laboratory (INL), OTR Wheel Engineering/Green Carbon

20-01-RR-4087

Reprocessing and Upcycling of Mixed Polyurethane Waste Streams

Reprocessing and Upcycling of Mixed Polyurethane Waste Streams

This project seeks to increase post-consumer polyurethane foam recycling and circularity through an innovative reprocessing strategy which incorporates a catalyst into the post-consumer materials to enable these materials to be reprocessed by extrusion or injection molding at elevated temperatures to useful products.

Project Team:
Northwestern University, BASF

20-01-RR-4071

Remanufacturing of Surface-Hardened Steel Components by Ultrasonic Surface Modification

Remanufacturing of Surface-Hardened Steel Components by Ultrasonic Surface Modification

This project seeks to develop practical repair techniques to recover nominal ‘as-new’ fatigue life in used or worn surface-hardened steel components by i) forging closed preexisting microcracks, ii) introducing beneficial compressive residual stresses (CRS) deeper than conventional shot peening, and iii) generating a nanocrystalline microstructure at the surface. Surface repairs based on UIT (a form of high-frequency needle peening) will be developed for a range of usage-induced damage conditions that are commonly found in these components, but for which there is a lack of practical repair methods.

Project Team:
Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Caterpillar, Inc., University of Pittsburgh (PITT)

20-01-RM-4012

Identification of Mixed Plastics and Valuable Electronics at the Source

Identification of Mixed Plastics and Valuable Electronics at the Source

This project seeks to develop vision sensing software that will enable consumers to determine how materials should be sorted for recycling, based on local recycling requirements.

Project Team:
University of Miami, Lid Vizion, LLC

20-01-RR-4042

Development of Instruments and Techniques That Can Assess Tire Life and Increase Re-Manufacturing of Commercial Vehicle Tires

Development of Instruments and Techniques That Can Assess Tire Life and Increase Re-Manufacturing of Commercial Vehicle Tires

This project seeks to increase the average number of times commercial vehicle tires are re-manufactured (retreaded) through the development of instruments and techniques that can assess the remaining useful life of tires in operation and optimize tire remanufacture.

Project Team:
Michelin North America, Northwestern University

20-01-RM-4006

Smart Additive Manufacturing Towards Use of Recycled Paper Fibers for Producing High-quality Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (FRP) Composites

Smart Additive Manufacturing Towards Use of Recycled Paper Fibers for Producing High-quality Fiber-Reinforced Plastic (FRP) Composites

This project seeks to enable a reliable and high-throughput conversion of recycled paper and paperboard products with contaminants into lightweight, high-strength FRP composites for reuse in industries such as transportation vehicles, furniture, construction, production tooling, etc. The objective of this project is to establish a smart additive manufacturing technology that can reliably produce recycled paper fibers for use in composites with uncompromised performance.

Project Team:
University of Iowa, Impossible Objects, Inc.

20-01-RR-4038

Chemical Recycling of Mixed PET/Polyolefin Streams Through Sequential Pyrolysis and Catalytic Upgrading

Chemical Recycling of Mixed PET/Polyolefin Streams Through Sequential Pyrolysis and Catalytic Upgrading

This project seeks to convert mixed plastics waste to re-usable products through the development of catalysts to convert polymer pyrolysis products to BTX and olefins. The feedstock for the proposed two-stage process (pyrolysis followed by catalytic upgrading of the pyrolysis products to BTX and olefins) is a mix of PET and PP waste plastics.

Project Team:
The Pennsylvania State University (PSU), Northwestern University, Shaw Group Industries, Inc., Process Systems Enterprise, Inc. - A Siemens Business

20-01-RR-4034

Diverting Mixed Polyolefins from Municipal Solid Waste to Feedstocks for Automotive and Building Applications

Diverting Mixed Polyolefins from Municipal Solid Waste to Feedstocks for Automotive and Building Applications

This project seeks to develop effective processing strategies to control the melt flow properties of mixed polyolefins to enable the reuse of mixed polyolefin waste plastics for new upcycling applications.

Project Team:
Michigan State University (MSU), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), PADNOS

20-01-RR-4032

Chemical Conversion and Process Control for Increased used of Polyethylene and Polypropylene Secondary Feedstocks

Chemical Conversion and Process Control for Increased use of Polyethylene and Polypropylene Secondary Feedstocks

This project seeks to evaluate reactive feedstock pre-treatment and to develop real-time process measurements to increase post-consumer and post-industrial polyolefin film waste utilization.

Project Team:
University of Massachusetts Lowell (UM-L), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), SER North America LLC, iMFLUX Inc.

20-01-MM-4130

Supramolecular Interfacial Reinforcement for Manufacture Utilizing Mixed Secondary Plastic Feedstock

Supramolecular Interfacial Reinforcement for Manufacture Utilizing Mixed Secondary Plastic Feedstock

This project seeks to develop a compatibilizer for MPO (mixed polymeric olefins, i.e., PE and PP) which are difficult to separate from each other and are incompatible. The compatibilized MPO will compete with virgin PE and virgin PP.

Project Team:
The University of Akron, Braskem

20-01-MM-4026

Achieving 100% Recycling Aluminum in Die Casting Applications

Achieving 100% Recycling Aluminum in Die Casting Applications

The goal of this project is to achieve 100% use of recycled aluminum in die casting applications by realizing the following two objectives: 1) substitute 100% secondary materials for primary alloys in structural die castings with no degradation in properties; and 2) improve the mechanical properties of the current secondary alloys for non-structural applications.

Project Team:
The Ohio State University (OSU), Alcoa USA Corp., North American Die Casting Association (NADCA), CompuTherm LLC

20-01-MM-4033

Material and Vehicle Design for High-Value Recycling of Aluminum and Steel Automotive Sheet

Material and Vehicle Design for High-Value Recycling of Aluminum and Steel Automotive Sheet

This project seeks to increase automotive sheet metal EOL (post‐consumer) recycled content; thus, reducing vehicle embodied energy and primary feedstock consumption. The objectives are to produce a new analytical design for recycling tool tailored for automotive metal sheets, and to generate new knowledge on how EOL sheet recycling is affected by vehicle design (e.g., alloy specification), recycling system infrastructure (e.g., deployment of emerging separation processes), and sheet manufacturing process decisions (e.g., temperature profiles informed by new Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) tools).

Project Team:
University of Michigan, Ford Motor Company, Novelis, Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), The Aluminum Association, Light Metal Consultants

20-01-DE-4030

Selective Recovery of Elements from Molten Aluminum Alloys

Selective Recovery of Elements from Molten Aluminum Alloys

This project seeks to develop, validate, and commercialize several processes to selectively remove iron, copper, silicon, manganese, and zinc from molten-scrap–based secondary aluminum melts to improve the recyclability of scrap aluminum.

Project Team:
Phinix, LLC, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Kingston Process Metallurgy, Smelter Service Corporation, Certified Flux Solutions, LLC

20-01-RR-4010

Building Re-X (BREX): Data, Methodology, and Design Integration

Building Re-X (BREX): Data, Methodology, and Design Integration

This project seeks to bring the concept of Design for Building Re-X (BREX) to the building construction materials. The project will develop a set of open access EOL databases for construction materials and create open-access BREX process models to enable EOL constraints to be incorporated into building design and materials selection.

Project Team:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Building Transparency, Skidmore Owings & Merrill

20-01-DE-4108

Recycling of PET in Sustainable Food Packaging Systems

Recycling of PET in Sustainable Food Packaging Systems

The primary objective of this project is to replace conventionally produced milk cartons, aseptic bricks, and food trays with 100% recycled PET.

Project Team:
MuCell Extrusion LLC, Plastilene SAS a Plastilene Group Company, Wingate Packaging, Sugar Creek Packaging Co., Center for Innovative Food Technology (CIFT), The Ohio State University (OSU)

20-01-RR-4065

Analysis and Design for Sustainable Circularity of Barrier Film in Sheet Molding Composites

Analysis and Design for Sustainable Circularity of Barrier Film in Sheet Molding Composites

This project seeks to develop 1) data and models about alternatives for recycling, reusing, or replacing the current nylon-based SMC barrier film, and 2) an approach, database, and software for the design of sustainable and circular networks of this barrier film.

Project Team:
The Ohio State University (OSU), Kohler Co., National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Arizona State University (ASU)

20-01-DE-4103

Dynamic Systems Analysis of PET and Olefin Polymers in a Circular Economy

Dynamic Systems Analysis of PET and Olefin Polymers in a Circular Economy

This project seeks to continue the development of a Systems Analysis model including materials flow analysis, techno-economic assessment, and life-cycle assessment for PET and Olefins materials flow in the U.S. economy.

Project Team:
Michigan Technological University (MTU), Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), Yale University, Chemstations

20-01-SA-4014

 

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