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Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Objectives of the commitment

To implement a Plasma Demonstration Installation as part of the Closing the Circle project of Group Machiels. The Closing the Circle (CtC) project will apply the Enhanced Landfill Mining concept to the landfill of Remo in Houthalen-Helchteren (Belgium) where in the meantime more than 16 million ton of waste is stored. Enhanced Landfill Mining addresses a few of the Grand Societal Challenges (resource efficiency, scarcity of primary resources, scarcity of fossil fuels, lower GHG emission, reduce amount of waste produced and landfilled) by closing the loops as part of the transition to a circular, low carbon sustainable economy. ELFM is part of a wider view of a circular economy and is perfectly complementary to urban mining and recycling in general.

Description of the activities

Enhanced Landfill Mining is defined as “the safe exploration, conditioning, excavation and integrated valorisation of (historic, present and/or future) landfilled waste streams as both materials (Waste-to-Material, WtM) and energy (Waste-to-Energy, WtE), using innovative transformation technologies and respecting the most stringent social and ecological criteria.” (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.05.021).

The CtC project was conceived by Group Machiels in 2008, as a means of mining the Remo landfill, performing the maximised integrated recuperation of materials and energy, whilst restoring the land as sustainable nature. The Remo landfill site contains more than 16 Mtonnes of mixed household (MSW) and commercial (C&I) wastes, including automotive shredder residue (ASR). The technical solutions of the CtC project were strongly innovated during the development of the project. In version 1.0 of the CtC project, it was envisaged that the syngas as produced by the plasma gasification process could only be valorised as electricity and heat through the use of gas engines or gas turbines. Version 2.0 of the CtC project as developed in the course of 2012 and early 2013 identified the opportunity of producing hydrogen, natural gas (Bio-SNG/CNG/LNG) or liquid fuels from the produced syngas. This enhanced the existing business model into a sustainable economic model, while at the same time offering a zero residue and a zero emissions solution, further enhancing the environmental benefits of the CtC project as well as the plasma gasification process.

First a Plasma Demonstration Plant (Plasma Demo) will be built given the high level of innovation. Group Machiels is currently forming an Industrial Consortium to bring a significant part of the required funds and knowledge together. The Industrial CtC Consortium will consist of a limited number of partners who will each be responsible for the engineering, construction and procurement of their own part of the CtC installations to the consortium. After successful first implementation, it is the strategic view that the same business model with the same partners will be rolled out on an international basis thereby creating Enhanced Landfill Mining as a potential successful European expert product addressing the main ecological challenges that our society is facing. Each partner will have a first right of refusal to participate in any similar projects in Europe.

The main task is to implement the Plasma Demonstration Installation demonstration project demonstrating the key concepts of Enhanced Landfill Mining on an industrial scale. This Plasma Demo has a capacity of 30 ktpa. The key objectives of the Plasma Demo are fourfold:

• Successfully upscale the plasma gasification technology
• Demonstrate the production of hydrogen, natural gas or liquid fuels from syngas
• Demonstrate the upcycling of plasmastone into high added value building products
• Demonstrate Enhanced Landfill Mining

Description of the expected impacts

As outlined in the EIP Commitment of EURELCO, the vision of EURELCO is that by 2020 Enhanced Landfill Mining is implemented EU wide as a key component of a resource efficient, circular and low carbon economy. The EU’s 150.000 to 500.000 landfills provide for a substantial part of the EU’s material, energy and land needs. EURELCO will pave the way for breakthrough exploration, separation, transformation and upcycling technologies that are also used for recycling/urban mining of newly produced waste and residues.

Key figures impact ELFM on EU-27 level:

- 150.000-500.000 landfills
- 5.000 million tons of waste
- 5% Domestic Materials Consumption (DMC) for period of 25 years
- 7 million Tonnes of Oil Equivalent (TOE)
- 3% European Renewable Energy targets 2020
- 2.800-6.000 km² land to be reclaimed (600.000 million € of potential industrial land value at 100 €/m², 5,6-12 mio jobs at 20 FTE/ha)
- > 8 million ton less CO² emissions per year
- 0,2-0,8 million direct jobs

The ELFM concept and technologies can also be applied to fresh waste streams such as e.g. residual urban waste (not included in the impact overview above) to further increase the impact of the ELFM concepts, technologies and products.

Coordinating organisation & role

Name of the coordinating organisation: Group Machiels (represented by JM Recycling NV)Country: BelgiumEntity profile: Private sector - large companyRole within the commitment:

The project was initiated by Group Machiels. Currently Group Machiels coordinates and develops the Closing the Circle by researching and developing key technical solutions, applying for the necessary permits, and forming an industrial consortium to fund a major part of the Plasma Demonstration Installation.

Other partners

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V.

Name of the organisation: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Angewandten Forschung e.V. Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Fraunhofer will lead the CFRP and GFRP recycling research.
Fraunhofer will perform corrosion tests on the developed materials.
Fraunhofer will work with CIDAUT on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project. Fraunhofer is the Quality Manager of the Consortium and will oversee deliverables and general reporting are produced with the best possible quality following agreed review standards.

Fundacion Cidaut

Name of the organisation: Fundacion Cidaut Country: Spain Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: CIDAUT will lead the research activities on materials recycling and compounding, implementing lab scale demonstrators of each process at its premises and, later, supporting end-users upscale the processes.
CIDAUT will perform mechanical tests, microstructural analyses, injection moulding capability studies on the developed materails, and will work with Fraunhofer on the implementation, validation and refinement of LCCA tools for the project.

RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV)

Name of the organisation: RWTH Aachen University (Institute of plastic processing (IKV) Country: Germany Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: RWTH will implement the novel 3D Generative Preforming process (3D Fibre Spraying) that enables to create high-value long fibre-reinforced 3D preforms for thermoplastic and thermoset composites at low process costs (different kinds of yarn as a raw material, low tooling costs due to low cavity pressures). This cost effective technology allows to align the sprayed fibres in order to produce high-performance, engineered anisotropic products.

Universita' di Cagliari

Name of the organisation: Universita' di Cagliari Country: Italy Entity profile:
Role within the commitment: University of Cagliari is one of the leading European organization in the resin design and coupling with thermoplastic and thermose materials. University of Cagliari will support in the definition of the composite materials, both from CFRP/GFRP, ABS and Rare Earth composite material.

Relight

Name of the organisation: Relight Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: RELIGHT will work with ITRB to provide the research partners with residues for the recycled ABS supply and the REE recovery processes, including their HydroWEEE process as part of the processes to be studied and analyzed.

Piaggio Aerospace

Name of the organisation: Piaggio Aerospace Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - large company
Role within the commitment: Piaggio Aerospace is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Piaggio will assist in the compounds selection, provide Fraunhofer with specific corrosion requirements on business jet size aircraft, and will assess that the developed materials performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

Blackshape Aircrafts

Name of the organisation: Blackshape Aircrafts Country: Italy Entity profile: Private sector - SME
Role within the commitment: Blackshape Aircrafts is one of the project End Users (Aeronautics Industry): as such it will provide requirements and further applications that could be developed with the Consortium Materials. Blackshape will support to fulfill the requirements of the aeronautics industry on ultra light jet, light jet and trainer for Syllabus, and will assess that the developed alloys performance fits the selected applications desired improvements.

KU Leuven

Name of the organisation: KU Leuven Country: Belgium Entity profile: Academia
Role within the commitment: KUL will collaborate on the balance problem studies and will lead the rare earth recovery research with the solvometallurgical and ionometallurgical processes.
KUL will also contribute to the final compounding selection.
KUL is the Dissemination Manager of the project, promoting that all partners are active on the project Dissemination.

FIDAMC

Name of the organisation: FIDAMC Country: Spain Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: FIDAMC is going to lead the Work Package on Compression Moulding with CFRP-enhanced materials. As part of the AIRBUS Group, FIDAMC will also be able to provide the input material.
FIDAMC successfully developed a 3D Printer of own design to serve the Aerospace Industry and will be supporting Smart Lab 3D Industries in its 3D printer design.

COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER

Name of the organisation: COMPOSITE INNOVATION CENTER Country: Canada Entity profile: Governmental/public body
Role within the commitment: Composite Innovation Center is one of the world leading organization in the field of Composite materials, both from carbon fiber and vegetal-based fibers.
Composite Innovation center has successfully implemented, at lab-scale, recycling processes for CFRP and GFRP.

Existing EU Contribution: No

Period to implement the commitment: from 01-01-2016 to 31-12-2021