DESIgning and REcycling sustainable Electronic boards for a EUropean circular economy

ongoing

DESIRE4EU aims at proving the concept of a radically new sustainable approach to produce, use and recycle electronic printed circuit boards (PCB) that combine technical performance, economic and ecological efficiency throughout their life cycle. The project’s vision is of sustainable, circular PCB manufactured in Europe using bio-based and biodegradable materials. It disrupts current paradigms and significantly reduces harmful waste, enabling fast and ecological copper recovery, above 70wt% of PCB ultimate waste elimination and 1-2% electronics sector CO2 emissions decrease by combining material science, green chemistry, electronics, environmental microbiology, Life Cycle and Value Chain Assessments. Our holistic approach considers boards as a complete system and develops a proof of concept and guidelines for exemplary, fully circular sustainable electronics solutions contributing to European leadership, resilience, and independence. We envision a world-first by 2030: industrially credible, compliant, bio-based, rigid boards, with an innovative and environmentally friendly recycling process for critical metals. DESIRE4EU has 4 SMART specific objectives: (1) The complete assembly of a technology compliant bio-based multilayer PCB, (2) An environmentally friendly and time-efficient bioleaching process, (3) A circular by design approach, materialized by guidelines for further uptake, (4) An advanced, cost-effective but large proof of concept attracting 2000 – 5000 students, responsible citizens and industries, from learners to prosumers. The consortium gathers 8 academic and private partners from 5 European countries, including 2 SMEs and 1 start-up. DESIRE4EU is managed by GINP, represented by Full Professor P. Xavier, who has extensive scientific and management experience. The partners expect at least 7 Open Access articles and 3 patents for this disruptive technology to be exploited in the field of class 2 rigid boards, with a potential market of €436 million.