This seminar was organised by the valorisation manager Jan-Henk Welink (TU Delft) to tell the broader audience more about the research project Circular Circuits. The aim of this project is to contribute to the development of a fully circular generation of electronics.
Electronic products contain critical raw materials, thereby closing the loop is very important for both strategic and environmental reasons. Recycling is very important in closing the loop, but other strategies and approaches are also important parts of the solution. Universities work with their industrial partners on this in the 5 year project Circular Circuits, funded under the Dutch NWO Perspectief program, that started in 2023. The program was published here.
During the seminar every work package was represented. Tomer Fishman (Leiden University) explained the plan on material flow and improvements on hot spots to find the problems with the availability of metals. Life time extending technology plays an important part in the availability of materials, and further developments were presented by Guo Qi Zhang (TU Delft). Ruud Balkenende (TU Delft) elaborated on the role of the design of products and services in circular economy. Development of the separation and recycling technologies as one of the approaches to enable circular economy was presented by Max van Beek (TU Delft). Other approaches such as development of the business models and closed loop value chains have been elaborated by Koen Dittrich (Erasmus University Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences). Erik Vegter (M2i) gave a talk on the project coordination. The seminar had about 80 attendees from different academic, industrial and non-profit organisations including industrial partners of the project.