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Strategic metals

Optimizing the Recycling of Strategic Metals

Challenges and Objectives

Strategic Metals in WEEE: A Critical Resource for Europe

The rapid development of new high-value technologies has significantly accelerated global consumption of metal resources over the past decades. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the number of metals used in industry has doubled, and around twenty new elements have now become essential to many applications such as low-carbon energy production, energy storage, computing, telecommunications, and aerospace.

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However, Europe remains dependent on the supply of metallic raw materials and is vulnerable to price fluctuations and risks of shortages. This is why the European Commission regularly publishes a list of so-called “critical metals,” some of which are found in WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment). Among the most common metals in WEEE are steel, copper, tin, cobalt, indium, and tantalum. Other precious metals such as gold, silver, silicon, lithium, and several rare earth elements are also widely used and can be found in higher concentrations in WEEE than in natural deposits.

Our research

Recycling of strategic metals from WEEE.

✅ ​Verification of the compatibility of collection streams with treatment processes.

This involves checking whether the metals collected from WEEE can be effectively processed using current recycling technologies.

✅ ​Development of miniaturized analytical methodologies.

These methodologies enable better characterization of products before and after recycling, while reducing the scale of required equipment, and allow recycling processes to be monitored more precisely and efficiently.

✅ ​Anticipation of the evolution of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE).

This involves forecasting how WEEE will evolve in the coming years in terms of material and metal composition, in order to ensure that current recycling systems remain suitable for these changes.

✅ ​Development of processes for extracting metals at low concentrations.

Strategic metals, often present in low quantities in WEEE, require new processes to extract them more efficiently.

Our work

Some projects of the Chair

Img Chaire Mines Urbaines Projet 1
Alexis Barthet, Post-doctoral researcher at Mines Paris – PSL

Sampling and characterization of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Morvan Gaudin

Extraction of antimony from WEEE.

Our stakeholders

A multidisciplinary expertise to innovate

Our team brings together specialists from diverse fields such as process physico-chemistry, materials chemistry, analytical sciences, and colloid physico-chemistry. Our work covers several areas, including the life-cycle management of raw materials, with techniques such as hydrometallurgy and bioleaching, as well as materials recycling and remanufacturing. We also focus on the development of materials for electrochemical energy storage, such as those used in batteries and supercapacitors. Finally, we develop methodologies to analyze and monitor processes across these different domains.

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