Four universities in Saxony are pooling their expertise in the field of the circular economy at the Schwarze Pumpe industrial site. A center for the recycling of difficult-to-recycle composite materials is being established here in Lausitz.
Where are the raw materials we’ll use in the future? – Many of them are in the trash!
Where are the people shaping this change? – In Lausitz!
The need to keep raw materials in circulation and thus put them to multiple uses is well known. But putting this into practice continues to present us with challenges—for example, the reuse of composite materials made of metals, plastics, and fiber fabrics.
How can we make our sensor systems for sorting waste streams better adapted to the new materials of the future? What disassembly steps are necessary to dismantle cars, refrigerators, and washing machines—ideally fully automatically—and recover functional replacement parts? What processes can help us reuse the carbon bound in waste residues during thermal recycling? Can recycled plastics be processed in a standard machine? Scientists from Chemnitz, Freiberg, Dresden, Zittau, and Görlitz, along with regional companies and experts, will soon be working together to find answers to these questions at the CircEcon site, the Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park.
At CircEcon, researchers and users will be able to replicate the entire life cycle of composite materials, plastics, and aluminum at a single location and use modern data management to track metrics such as energy consumption and the use of resources and personnel. Newly developed plant components can be tested and optimized in an industry-like environment without causing production downtime.
CircEcon offers modern workplaces for engineers and scientists who want to make a difference through the circular economy.
CircEcon, with its team spread across four locations, demonstrates that collaboration focused on the circular economy—with the goal of establishing a joint scientific institution—is possible. At HSZG, the core team—comprising scientists, project managers, administrative staff from various departments, and project leadership—works closely together to establish a “research factory of the future” for the region at the Schwarze Pumpe site in Lausitz.
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At the construction site, the structures of the building sections are already visible from a distance. At the same time, the procurement of building services equipment at the universities is in full swing. In Zittau, too, specifications are being drawn up and bidding processes are underway. We’re constantly fine-tuning the details and studying the construction company’s latest drawings to ensure everything fits into place. Project proposals are being written and consortia formed for the start-up phase—in short: minds are racing and keyboards are glowing.
I am pleased that we have succeeded in partnering with companies that value recycling just as much as we do. Here, a spirit of research meets the solution-oriented pragmatism of suppliers, giving rise to innovative systems.
”In the field of disassembly, complex technical systems are to be disassembled fully automatically, with the integration of virtual augmented reality solutions to achieve optimal recovery of parts and components.
Equipment for sensor-based sorting of metals (with a focus on aluminum) and engineering plastics will be installed. We combine traditional metal separation as well as NIR and MIR sorting with innovative picking systems and artificial intelligence methods to process material streams efficiently and precisely.
In a wet processing area, hydrocyclones, a decanter centrifuge, scrubbers, and dryers will be installed to handle a wide range of waste streams with varying particle sizes and material densities. The plant’s processing capacity will range between 500 and 800 kg/h.
Thermochemical conversion for the circular economy in CircEcon will serve as the key component linking sorted waste fractions to the resulting synthesis gas for energy recovery. The challenge lies in developing the plants in such a way that a broad spectrum of materials can be utilized for recycling. Numerous service providers and plant engineers in the energy and gas conversion sector are working closely with us to ensure that tomorrow’s energy supply becomes more decentralized and capable of meeting base load demand. Together with the plant engineer LIPro Energy GmbH, we will investigate the use of various secondary biomass materials—such as nut shells or oat flake hulls—combined with plastic waste for gas production in an experimental gas generator, thereby creating significant added value from unused materials for a storable energy supply.
With UTF GmbH, we are pursuing the exact opposite approach. Here, we utilize gases generated in upstream processes, enabling our process gas converter to produce solid carbon from them, which can then be reintegrated into the circular economy as a defossilized resource.
Then please contact us or meet us
…and at various events in the Hoyerswerda and Spremberg areas, among others—we’ll keep you updated daily on our CircEcon project page.
By the way, the inauguration ceremony will take place on-site at the Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park in December.
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