A number of industry stakeholders are involved in a project researching solar panel recycling. | Michael Vi/Shutterstock
ERI, Sunnking, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries and other familiar industry names are involved with research projects that received funding this month.
The REMADE (Reducing Embodied-Energy and Decreasing Emissions) Institute on Dec. 1 announced 23 projects that will receive funding. The grants, several of which went to electronics-related projects, constitute the fifth round of funding from the REMADE Institute, a public-private partnership established by the U.S. Department of Energy. The institute’s goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in manufacturing by supporting recycling, reuse and remanufacturing.
In this latest round, REMADE announced $33 million, a sum that’s cost-shared between the energy department and the grant recipients.
REMADE announced its fourth round of funding in March. According to the latest press release, REMADE plans next year to take applications for the sixth round of funding.
The following are the e-scrap-related projects funded in this fifth round (all 23 projects are detailed in this Resource Recycling article):
Electronics and electrical goods recycling
“Fast Diagnostics to Enable EV Battery Reuse,” by ReJoule and Renewance.
“Automation for Remanufacturing of Battery Modules,” by the Rochester Institute of Technology and BigBattery.
“Improving Recycling Efficiency of Portable Electronics by Automating Battery Disassembly,” a project by the Idaho National Laboratory, Sunnking, the University at Buffalo, and Iowa State University.
“Design for RE-Solar,” by the University of Pittsburgh, University of California-Irvine (UCI), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), First Solar, Alfred University, Yale University, Sunnking, Aluminum Association, and ERI.
“Recycling Technologies for Silicon Solar Modules,” by Arizona State University, First Solar, and TG Companies.
Systems and supply-chain analysis
“Building a Sustainable Supply Chain of Materials for the U.S. Healthcare Sector,” by The MITRE Corporation, Braskem, Mycocycle, Covanta, and Antea Group.
“A Technical Evaluation Framework for Recycling Technologies,” by the University of Michigan, NREL, Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), The Plastics Industry Association, The Aluminum Association, and the Steel Manufacturers Association.
“Modeling reverse flows of selected recycled materials, their associated energy use and their GHG emissions: An application to California and a blueprint for the US,” by UCI and TruckPay.com.
“Course on Systems Thinking for Material Management: Benefit and Tools,” by the Georgia Institute of Technology, Yale University, NREL, GreenBlue, and The Aluminum Association.
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