Waste as Valuable Elements for Europe

Objective

WAVEE, Waste As Valuable Elements for Europe, aims at valorise skills and know-how coming from academic and industrial scientists operating in the field of waste treatment and material science by the development of cutting-edge and low impact recovery methods for critical raw materials, CRMs from spent Li-ion batteries. The adoption of microwave radiation and mechanochemical approaches, in combination with mild organic/metal-organic compounds to replace conventional pyrometallurgy and strong and hazardous acids will provide a leap forward safer and greener recovery. The developed protocols will be scaled-up to pre-industrial level, to assess the overall efficiency of the innovative recycling processes and the quality of recovered RMs. Lastly, recovered materials will be tested in brand-new devices, such as batteries, catalysts, sensors and nanoelectronics. The outcomes of the project WAVE are relevant in key sectors for EU economy and for EU citizens, tackling the challenge of sourcing rare elements and properly dealing with waste valorisation and circular economy. This will result in improved efficiency and sustainability of the whole industrial chain of battery recycling, while ensuring a solid and reliable source of key RMs within EU. WAVEE Action pursue its main objectives through an intersectoral secondment plan, training activities, workshops and seminars for academic, SME and public audience. The consortium created for the project WAVEE represents a solid combination of internationally-recognised academic organisations possessing a wide experience on protocols related to the synthesis and treatment of materials for energy applications and advanced characterizations that is benchmarked by track record in both research publications and implemented projects.