SIM² Welcome

SIM² KU Leuven (Sustainable Inorganic Materials Management) is an interdisciplinary research cluster at KU Leuven, which addresses the European and global demand for more cleantech innovation and research on resource recovery and recycling.

Why restricting lead (Pb) metallurgy is a bad idea

Recently the use of lead is being called into question by some policy makers. To provide a firm metallurgical background on its crucial role in the Circular Economy, the EU ETN SOCRATES team has just published a new Policy Brief.

Selective REE recovery from bauxite residue slags

In the framework of ETN REDMUD, an integrated process was developed by KU Leuven and RWTH Aachen to selectively recover Fe and REEs from slags produced during smelting of bauxite residue. The work is published in Hydrometallurgy.

How circular is the household metal packaging cycle?

Researchers at SIM² KU Leuven & VVSG investigated the circularity of the household metal packaging cycle in Flanders. They found remarkable discrepancies between experimental (sorting) data and reported literature data.

Meet our SIM² KU Leuven researcher: Joren van Stee

Joren van Stee is doing his PhD at SIM² KU Leuven in the research group of Prof. Tom Van Gerven. His topic is solvent extraction in milliflow systems. Find out more about Joren van Stee and his work in this new SIM² interview.

Denis Gontcharov for president of EIT Raw Materials Alumni

Denis Gontcharov, a graduate of EIT Labelled Master Programme on Sustainable Materials (SUMA), which train the entrepreneurs for the future circular economy, has been nominated as president of the EIT RawMaterials Alumni Board.

New PhD on innovative technologies for REE recovery

On January 23rd, 2018, Rodolfo Marin Rivera obtained his PhD degree in Chemical Engineering. He successfully defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Innovative technologies for rare earth element recovery from bauxite residue‘.