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.

SLO Symposium (Artefact): Five Lessons Learned

In this article Peter Tom Jones reflects on the Artefact SLO Symposium on the Social License to Operate for mining & recycling of critical metals and summarises some key take-home messages. Reactions are welcome.

ELFM IV (February 2018): Six lessons learned

In this article “Six lessons learned” Peter Tom Jones reflects on the 4th International Enhanced Landfill Mining (ELFM IV) Symposium and summarises some key take-home messages. Quo vadis for ELFM? Reactions are welcome.

Landfill mining (ELFM) & the World Economic Forum

On June 21, 2017, the World Economic Forum featured a blog by Dr. Peter Tom Jones about ‘Enhanced Landfill Mining’ (ELFM). Reaching an audience of 100,000+ readers per week, this article puts landfill mining under the (global) spotlights.

NEW-MINE Policy Brief on Enhanced Landfill Mining

The ETN NEW-MINE project has just published a new Policy Brief on the future of Enhanced Landfill Mining in Europe and beyond. The Policy Brief draws Six Lessons Learned from the recent ELFM IV Symposium (February 5-6, 2018).

New “TED-talk” on Enhanced Landfill Mining (EL

In this 15-minute TED-talk for the science dissemination platform “University of Flanders” Peter Tom Jones explains the Enhanced Landfill Mining concept, discussing the challenge to mine landfills in view of resource recovery.

Meet our SIM² KU Leuven researcher: Steff Van Loy

Steff Van Loy is a PhD student at the Department of Chemical Engineering at KU Leuven. His work targets the implementation of mechanochemical methods for recycling of critical metals from industrial waste streams.

News

Meet our SIM² KU Leuven researcher: Steff Van Loy

August 3rd, 2018|0 Comments

New PhD on REE recovery from bauxite residue

August 2nd, 2018|0 Comments

On July 2nd, 2018, Dženita Avdibegović (SIM² KU Leuven) obtained her PhD degree in Chemistry. She successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘Recovery of rare earths from bauxite residue leachates by functionalised sorbents‘.

Call for applicants: 15 PhD positions in CHARMING

August 1st, 2018|0 Comments

The EU Horizon 2020 MSCA-ETN CHARMING consortium is looking for a dynamic team of 15 bright and enthusiastic PhD students. The call for applicants is now officially open. PhD candidates need to apply on-line through the CHARMING application tool. The deadline for on-line applications is October 15, 2018.

Students establish metal packaging recycling rate

July 13th, 2018|0 Comments

According to FostPlus recycling rates of household metal packaging are almost 100% in Belgium. Chemical Engineering students of KU Leuven Campus Group T have, however, established that the real recycling rate is only about 65%.

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Research Results

Novel Sm/Co separation process for SmCo magnets

August 14th, 2018|0 Comments

SIM² KU Leuven researchers have developed a novel approach to separate samarium from cobalt originating from SmCo magnets. Their newly published paper introduces very simple and cheap-to-maintain solvent extraction processes.

MSA: a green solvent for the recovery of REEs

August 2nd, 2018|0 Comments

Within the EU Horizon 2020 REMAGHIC project, SIM² KU Leuven developed a novel process to recover rare earths (REEs) from lamp phosphor waste by dissolution in concentrated methanesulphonic acid (MSA), which is a green solvent.

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