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Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Objectives of the commitment

ENCRAM aims at gathering the different initiatives (associations, clusters, projects…) working on CRMs into an Expert Network on Critical Raw Materials. The network includes public entities and civil society representatives, in order to allow a multi-stakeholder dialogue on a topic with such key societal, economic, geopolitical and environmental implications. The first objective of ENCRAM is to establish this long lasting Expert Network on CRM and to define the way it can be operated after the end of the Project and gain its sustainability.

Description of the activities

ENCRAM will contribute to improve the CRM supply chain by:
• identifying primary and secondary resources of CRMs, and their respective qualities, available for Europe (mapping, assessing, quantifying), in an international context;
• estimating the expected EU demand of various CRMs in the future and identify major trends;
• providing policy and technology recommendations for actions improving the production of the various primary and secondary CRMs and actions for their potential substitution, in order to secure their supply and decrease the relative dependence upon their imports;
• providing a plan for transparent consultation with relevant external stakeholders and effective communication of the findings to the professional and general public across the EU;
• addressing end of life products (EOL) and specifically the WEEE issues related to their mapping and treatment standardisation regarding CENELEC standard.
The strategic vision of ENCRAM is
- To establish an Expert Network covering the whole value chain for the present and coming CRM, mainly based on existing structures and initiatives, having an international dimension and establish a clustering between EU projects in the field, including potentially KIC upscaling projects.
- To identify potential tracks for innovation, breakthroughs, substitution options, new resources (primary, secondary, urban mines), etc. addressing both technology and market of CRM.
- To analyse their potential development according to current policies, regulations and standards; identify the related gaps and limitations; and propose tracks of evolution, for EOL and especially for WEEE. The aim is to lift barriers and ultimately boost the creation of new markets in Europe, inducing jobs and wealth.
- To capitalized the knowledge and share the data widely and efficiently. To support systemic change, the knowledge generated in the project will be made widely available to stakeholders and to the public through dissemination actions
The opportunities of conceiving and implementing new, innovative value chains to deliver on this vision are great. However, we also acknowledges the challenges (diversity of CRMs, potential evolution of the CRM list, technological, industrial, economic, knowledge management, etc.) posed by the disruptions which are required to implement such value chains, which is why stakeholder dialogue is at the core of ENCRAM: policy, society and industrial decision-makers are involved from the start, and the main project outcome is to facilitate strategic knowledge-based decisions to be carried out by these groups.

Description of the expected impacts

- achieving the objectives and the implementation of both the Raw Materials Initiative and the EIP on Raw Materials, in particular in terms of the access to critical raw materials (CRMs);
- better informed decision making by the EU and Member States policy makers and the producers and users of raw materials regarding the supply of raw materials;
- development of European standards for the treatment of WEEE, waste batteries and other relevant end-of-life products that would help towards optimising the recovery of critical raw materials;
- increased recovery rates in the EU as regards CRMs from WEEE, waste batteries and other relevant end-of-life products;
- in longer term reduced EU dependency on imports of CRMs;
- improved awareness of relevant external stakeholders and general public across the EU about importance of the critical raw materials for society, challenges related to their supply and about proposed solutions.

Short term impact (by 2019):
• Value chain integration of each CRM
• Diffusion of the information
• Support in the decision making

Medium term impact (by 2025):
• Innovation catalyser, emergence of new innovation projects
• Enhanced market conditions
• Cross sectorial knowledge transfer enhancement
• Increased standardisation of the WEEE treatment

Longer term impact (after 2025):
• New value chains & related economic impact
• Eco-friendly processes development

Coordinating organisation & role

Name of the coordinating organisation: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternativesCountry: FranceEntity profile: Governmental/public bodyRole within the commitment:

Coordinator
contributing to the creation of the network, the substitution and technological innovation issues

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 02-01-2017 to 28-06-2019