Applying circularity to car electronics

Technological solutions and digital tools improve recovery of critical raw materials from electronic car parts along the automotive industry value chain.

Climate Change and Environment

Older cars are made of metal, glass and plastic, and automotive recycling facilities are designed to recover these materials. However, newer cars include essential electronic components, and the metals making up these components are not adequately recycled. The EU-funded TREASURE project developed an online platform as well as multiple reconfigured recycling units to help recover the metals used in modern car electronics.

Initiative to recover critical raw materials

The supply of critical raw materials (CRMs) is essential to multiple industries and a Europe-wide concern. CRMs are essential to reaching Green Deal goals, therefore, recovering rare metals through recycling is critical to improving the EU’s supply of CRMs. Barriers to implementing circular economy (CE) practices go beyond the lack of properly equipped recycling facilities. The project envisions a future in which the end-of-life (EoL) recovery of materials is built into the design of new cars, but the lack of communication between various actors is a challenge. Proprietary market concerns hinder cooperation between car manufacturers and car part suppliers, and relevant regulations – both existing and those under development – need to be clearer to stakeholders. TREASURE reduced barriers in several ways. An advisory framework connects disassembly, recycling and design actors, and the project created a policy guideline to provide industry players and politicians with needed information. TREASURE also created the first in-depth assessment of car electronics lifecycle and circularity. A digital platform composed of a four-module toolbox that uses an AI-based scenario assessment tool to compare different perspectives on disassembly processes, recyclability and circularity performance is a major achievement. The automotive industry has responded well to the resources provided by TREASURE, and the platform is seen as the first step in enabling secure information exchange in EoL activities.

Innovative recycling techniques

Digital tools are critical to improving automotive CE, but the EoL recovery of CRMs requires new recycling operations as well. TREASURE built on earlier EU-funded projects to reconfigure a hydrometallurgical processing plant for recovery of precious, critical and base metals. According to project coordinator Paolo Rosa: “The modular hydrometallurgical plant developed in TREASURE is a process fully dedicated to the recovery of precious metals from both obsolete car electronics, LCDs (liquid crystal display) and IME (in-mould electronics) parts. Specifically, the recovered silver has been reused to produce new IME parts.” Another reconfigured process developed by TREASURE involves the deconstruction of PCBs (printed circuit boards). Rosa states: “AI and robotics have been adopted to develop a semi-automated PCB disassembly process dedicated to the recognition of electronic components present on obsolete PCBs and their subsequent desoldering. This improves the recovery rate of materials for the subsequent hydrometallurgical process.” With a consortium consisting of 15 partners across seven EU countries, TREASURE addressed a complex problem with a multifaceted approach. The project produced digital resources to support communication and recovery of CRMs along the automotive industry value chain. It also built on technological solutions to improve recycling so that CRMs can be reused in manufacturing electronic car parts, avoiding downcycling of degraded materials. In these ways, TREASURE is steering car manufacturing towards fuller CE participation.

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