Organizing the Circular Economy Through A Network of LSAM Microfactories Recycling Ocean Plastics - OCEAN-LSAM

Research Project, 2022 – 2023

Purpose and goal
OCEAN-LSAM lays the foundation for tomorrow’s global network of circular economy microfactories producing large products designed by Swedish industry and produced from local recycled polymer waste streams through large-scale additive manufacturing (LSAM) equipment supplied by Swedish industry. Goals include 1) an integrated, optimized process for LSAM using recycled ocean polyamide waste (fishing nets) and 2) initiation of a computational model to replace real-world tests to improve current designs and enable efficient investigation of new designs and products.

Expected results and effects
The major expected impacts of this project (Step 1) and the forthcoming demonstration project (Step 2) lie in enabling Swedish manufacturing industry to move towards more circular production methods using recycled/upcycled material composites, thereby improving Swedish competitiveness and reducing the industry’s climate impact. OCEAN-LSAM contributes to the Produktion2030 call 16 impact goal: Reduced resource waste along entire product life cycles and value chains, as well as four UN SDGs: #9, #11, #12, #14.