Recycling aluminium from existing End of Life (EoL) and production scraps uses only 5% of energy compared to primary material production, making it mandatory for exploiting its global decarbonisation potential and meeting the demands of the European Green Deal. However, once aluminium is alloyed with other metals, it is virtually impossible to remove these elements again. Extensive mixing of different EoL alloys therefore inevitably leads to downcycling. This practice has been a successful strategy due to high demand for cast aluminium alloys in combustion engines, a universal recycling “sink” that will dry up in the coming years. Europe possesses a rich potential of secondary aluminium resources with an expected share of 49% of total aluminium production by 2050. The RecAL project (Recycling technologies for circular ALuminium) provides a balanced approach to fully exploit this valuable resource. It synergistically addresses all stages of circular production and tackles problems of the entire value chain: - Increase impurity tolerance in alloy design at level or superior performance - Exploit the benefits of digitization and robotic assistance in sorting and dismantling - Create recyclate streams with vastly enhanced purities - Adapt production paradigms to unfold the full potential of secondary resources - Harmonise communication between all sectors of the aluminium industry The project will mature an envelope of 14 crucial technological solutions towards these goals up to TRL6 and embed them into a digital, “socio-technical ecosystems”: the Aluminium HUB for circularity. This interactive platform will directly link stakeholders along the value chain for full scale industrial and technological symbiosis and circular economy closing energy, resource and data loops at regional and European scale.

Multiple challenges exist with respect to the development of multifunctional and intelligent airframe and engine parts. These are situated along the entire aircraft component value chain - design, manufacturing, MRO and recycling. SUSTAINair addresses each of these phases. With respect to design, new joining techniques for metal and composite designs are developed and demonstrated. For metal joining, these include a novel pin-pattern creation with Laser Powder Bed Fusion/Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing/Laser Direct Energy Deposition. For composites, these consist of thermoplastic welding. With respect to both design and manufacturing, a flexible wing with morphing capabilities is made industrially possible by introducing a novel concept using tailored elastomers, seamless integrated with conventional structural wing parts for lowest integration risk, providing a realistic industrial morphing technology. The problem of high production waste in the manufacture of composite materials, Ti AM and Al HPDC is addressed, thereby reducing waste streams, e.g.: For thermoset prepreg manufacturing waste and thermoplastic waste, new recycled materials are developed and characterized to allow re-use with recyclability up to 100%, bringing FTB ratio close to 1 (KET3-KPI); Increased BTF ratio of Ti powders by using it 6x (vs. 1x now) (KET4-KPI); Incredible BTF ratio <1.1 by advanced HPDC processing of thermal stable nano-eutectics (KET5-KPI). A Structural Health Monitoring system optimizing MRO activity is proven using radically new ZnO nanowires, which will be integrated into polymer as well as metal parts. Finally, SUSTAINair raises the bar with respect to aircraft EoL, introducing Industry 4.0 automated technology for robotic dismantling.

The COMPASS project is driven by the needs to on the one hand increase the efficiency of recycling and remanufacturing processes (for sheet metal parts) and on the other hand by the need to find a solution for large quantities of thermoplastic fibre-reinforced components at their end of life. In both cases the proposed approach is to take a shortcut by remanufacturing the components at the level of sheet metal and composite panels instead of converting them to secondary raw material. This will be achieved through (thermo-)forming processes that allow the re-shaping of parts and components to give them a second and third life. These remanufacturing processes will be supported by a set of digital tools that build upon a digital component passport. The tools will enable efficient dismantling processes to extract sheets or panels e.g. from an aircraft and will help to collect relevant information about the components during their lifetime. The main use cases are from the aerospace and automotive sector and include key actors along the value chain. By using digital information about defects, re-work or repair done during the lifetime of the components. The quality of the resulting, remanufactured output parts will be optimized. A remanufacturing process planning software will also optimize the match between input components and targeted output parts. The COMPASS project will initiate more than 6M€ of private investments in technology development and implementation of remanufacturing process in the use cases investigated in the project. The overall goal is to enable the remanufacturing of about 30% of sheet metal parts and thermoplastic composite panels.