Register for Summer School To mine or not to mine

Researchers are invited to (pre)register for the Summer School “To mine or not to mine – A multi-criteria assessment of the landfill mining of municipal and industrial solid waste deposits” (September 10-12, 2018). This latest Summer School is organised in Leuven (Novotel), being a joint initiative of the EU Horizon 2020 projects ETN SOCRATES and ETN NEW-MINE, in collaboration with the EIT RawMaterials IMAGINE programme. Further support is provided by SIM² KU Leuven, EURELCO and the Arenberg Doctoral School. Taking into account that the total amount of participants is limited to 50 (incl. invited 30 participants from NEW-MINE & SOCRATES) it is advised to preregister/apply asap. (Leuven, 24-4-2018).  

Rationale for the Summer School

Resource scarcity, climate change and increased pressure on environment and health necessitate the transition from a fossil-based, linear economy to a low-carbon, circular economy.  What was considered as waste in the past, becomes a resource for tomorrow. Increasing attention is given to the possibility of mining and/or reprocessing of municipal and industrial solid waste deposits (see ELFM-video April 2018). But is it really feasible to mine these secondary deposits? Do we have the appropriate technology? Is it economically feasible to do this? Does the mining of these deposits indeed contribute to a safer environment and health situation? Does it lead to a new CO₂ reductions? And do people want a mining project “in their backyard”?

On September 10-12, 2017, the joint ETN SOCRATES, ETN NEW-MINE & EIT KIC IMAGINE summer school will be organised in Leuven, Belgium. The Summer School aims at offering an integral approach for the assessment of landfill mining projects. The interdisciplinary training programme aims at going beyond technical assessment, offering an approach to determine the value of landfill mining from an economic, environmental, social and policy  perspective. Two landfill types will be studied, being municipal solid waste landfills (NEW-MINE) & industrial monolandfills, containing e.g.  mine tailings, metallurgical sludges, ferrous and non-ferrous slags and bottom ashes (SOCRATES).

Target group

We invite researchers from academia and industry who want to go beyond the technical aspects of research and who want to discover how a great idea can evolve to an actual product or service in society. Bachelor and Master students, and PhD and postdoctoral researchers who want to broaden their view with an economic, environmental, social, industrial and commercial perspective.

Programme

The Summer School starts on Monday 10/09 at 9h00 in Novotel Leuven, 5′ walking distance from the railway station. Courses take place from 9h-12h30 and from 13h30 till 17h00 with a short break in the mornings and afternoon. On Wednesday 12/09, the summer school ends after lunch.

• Session 1 – 10/9/2018: Multi-criteria assessment of Enhanced Landfill Mining Projects – An interdisciplinary training programme for ELFM projects– Karel Van Acker (KU Leuven), Steven Van Passel (University of Antwerp and Hasselt University) and Niclas Svensson (Linköping University).
• Poster session – Participants are invited to submit a poster about their research during a formal poster session organised on Monday evening, 10 September 2018. The posters will be on display during the whole duration of the Summer School.
• Session 2 – 11/9/2018: Industrial flowsheeting and thermo-economic assessment.Markus Reuter (HZDR).
• Summer School dinner – A summer school dinner will be offered on Tuesday 11 September in the city centre of Leuven.
• Session 3 – 11-12/9/2018: From the lab to the market, business development & commercialisation. Christina Meskers (Umicore) & Tony Hand and Nicolas Menou (EIT Raw Materials).

Registration

The following registration fees apply:

• Selected students from SUMA (EIT): 200 euro
• Invited students from NEW-MINE & SOCRATES ESRs: 200 euro
• KU Leuven PhD students (Arenberg Doctoral School): 250 euro
• EURELCO Members: 250 euro
• Other PhD students and postdocs: 300 euro
• Non-EURELCO Industrial affiliates: 450 euro

The registration fee includes all lunches and coffee breaks (3 days), a drink during the poster session and a summer school dinner with the speakers on the 2nd day. In case of cancellation of participation before 10/08/2018 the registration fee will be refunded deducting a handling fee of €35 per person. In case of cancellation after 10/08/2018 no refunds of any kind will be made. Register here.

Not a researcher from ETN NEW-MINE or ETN SOCRATES?

Apply here for the Summer School. Please consider that the total amount of participants is limited to 50 (incl. invited 30 participants from NEW-MINE & SOCRATES).

Main organisers

ETN NEW-MINE: NEW-MINE is the EU Training Network for Resource Recovery Through Enhanced Landfill Mining. As a EU Horizon 2020 MSCA-ETN project, NEW-MINE trains 15 early-stage researchers (ESRs) in all aspects of landfill mining, in terms of both technological innovation and multi-criteria assessments. The technological innovation follows a value-chain approach, from advanced landfill exploration, mechanical processing, plasma/solar/hybrid thermochemical conversion and upcycling, while the multi-criteria assessment methods allow to compare combined resource-recovery/remediation ELFM methods with the “Do-Nothing”, “Classic remediation” and “Classic landfill mining with (co-)incineration” scenarios. By training the ESRs in scientific, technical and soft skills, they become highly sought-after scientists and engineers for the rapidly emerging landfill-mining and broader raw-materials industries of Europe.

ETN SOCRATES: SOCRATES is the European Training Network for the Sustainable, zero-waste valorisation of critical-metal-containing industrial process residues. SOCRATES targets ground-breaking metallurgical processes, incl. plasma-, bio-, solvo-, electro- and ionometallurgy, that can be integrated into environmentally friendly, (near-)zero-waste valorisation flow sheets. As a basis for a concerted effort to strengthen the EU’s critical-metal supply chain for Ge, In, Ga and Sb, SOCRATES trains 15 early-stage researchers (ESRs) in technological innovation: metal extraction (WP1), metal recovery (WP2), residual matrix valorisation (WP3) and integrated assessment (WP4). By training the ESRs in scientific, technical and soft skills, they are the next generation of highly employable scientists and engineers in the raw-materials sector.

EIT RawMaterials IMAGINE: IMAGINE is an EIT RawMaterials KIC Education project. IMAGINE stands for the Development and implementation of EIT RawMaterials Master Programme(s) in Sustainable Materials. The consortium proposes a ‘fast track’ pilot action involving the integration of 4 existing Master programmes into an EIT label compatible pilot master programme on which the partners can build a joint final Master programme. The Master programmes will focus on materials processing and recycling, circular (eco)design, life cycle engineering and circular economy design, materials substitution, manufacturing, entrepreneurship and innovation and will mandatorily involve studies in two different institutions and internship in a company.

Other co-organisers

EURELCO, SIM² KU Leuven, Arenberg Doctoral School