Circular economy

BETTER PLASTICS – PLASTICS IN A CIRCULAR ECONOMY

BETTER PLASTICS project aims to be the Mobilizing Project of the Plastics Sector in Portugal and leverage the transition of this sector to a circular economy. It comes from an initiative of APIP, Associação Portuguesa da Indústria dos Plásticos, which intends to mobilize the private sector together with National Authorities, Universities and Citizens to the objectives of European Circular Economy.

PhytoCharMe - A circular economy approach for the valorisation of soils in abandoned mine sites by using phytoremediation combined with biochar

A new methodology for the restoration/valorisation of abandoned mines sites, within the Iberian Pyrite Belt, in the SE of Portugal, is addressed. Considering the great environmental concern of the case study and always bearing in mind metals availability, the project focus on three main pillars: soil, biochar and plants.

INPACTUS - Black Liquor

Black liquor is a pulp mill effluent from wood cooking with a solid content of 15-18 wt.%, which is mostly lignin. The present study focuses the electrolysis of black liquor for energy recovery. The process has several economic and environmental advantages, as it simultaneously generates a clean fuel (hydrogen) at the cathode and a precipitated material with economic value (lignin) at the anode surface.

INPACTUS - LWood

The exploitation of Eucalyptus globulus plantations and subsequent processing on paper leads to the production of secondary products that can be used as biomasses for a liquefaction conversion process that will lead to their appreciation from the point of view more attractive energy.

INPACTUS - ASA

For printing and writing paper production, hydrophobicity is one of the critical requirements. Depending on the printing technology and the end use of the paper, the needs of the bonding process vary by changing appearance characteristics (whiteness, smoothness, and stiffness) and printing efficiency.

RecValTR – Recovery and valorization of rare earth elements from electric and electronic waste

In this project processes will be identified and developed for recovery of rare earths elements (REE), particularly the most critical five, neodymium (Nd), europium (Eu), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy) and yttrium (Y), from waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), namely NdFeB permanent magnets and phosphors, and waste of batteries and accumulators (WB&A), namely NiMH batteries.

The activities will comprise:

REMInE: Improve Resource Efficiency and Minimize Environmental Footprint

The global demand for metals and minerals is growing rapidly; Europe has a huge trade deficit for metallic minerals, and therefore needs to extract more of its own resources to reduce this dependence. The occurrence of valuable minerals and metals in historical mine waste can in many cases constitute a risk for the environment, but can also be a resource of critical materials.

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