From FineFuture to FINEST towards a more sustainable circular economy

The EU-funded H2020 project FineFuture successfully tackled the recovery of fine particles for an increased resource efficiency, and an improved pneumatic flotation technology was one of the key outcomes with the very realistic option of bringing it to industry. Though being potentially suitable for secondary material as well, the focus was on primary ores such as manganese, magnesite or iron. Nevertheless, feeding the pneumatic flotation cell with tailings material was also conducted in some experiments, and resulted in satisfactory recovery rates of the target elements.
However, due to resource depletion and the paradigm of climate-neutrality economy needs to be transformed into a more circular one, making use of sustainable value chains and keeping resources longer in the loop. Therefore, the research goes further with the project FINEST, and tackles finest particulate matter of anthropogenic origin such as shredder waste from WEEE or cars, fine ashes, etc. The target elements considered from these waste materials are microplastics, mineral additives and disperse metals. The idea is to combine different waste streams by blending them in order to stimulate improved process behavior, and an increase of the recovery rate of valuable elements such as copper, iron etc. Most of the waste streams considered in FINEST are currently not utilized, resulting in a great benefit for circularity and simultaneously reducing environmental harm through the reduction of the amount of material that needs to be disposed of. The unavoidable residuals are treated in a way that all compounds are inert, and allow for a safe disposal.
The project is largely oriented towards transdisciplinarity, and the FINEST Research School is additionally embedded into the research project. The school aims to train postgraduate students in a structured way to allow them to become transfer experts in resource management. While offering training at industry during the PhD phase, the school follows the concept of “transfer via brains“, which means to aim for an excellent education of the PhD’s, who will enter industry afterwards with the goal to manage a transformation from inside into more circular thinking.