Prospecting Secondary Raw Materials in the Urban Mine and Mining Waste (ProSUM)
Research Project, 2015 – 2017

The ProSUM project will establish a European network of expertise on secondary sources of critical raw materials (CRMs), vital to today’s high-tech society. ProSUM directly supports the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials and its Strategic Implementation Plan calling for the creation of a European raw materials knowledge base. Data on primary and secondary raw materials are available in Europe, but scattered amongst a variety of institutions including government agencies, universities, NGOs and industry. By establishing a EU Information Network (EUIN), the project will coordinate efforts to collect secondary CRM data and collate maps of stocks and flows for materials and products of the “urban mine”. The scope is the particularly relevant sources for secondary CRMs: Electrical and electronic equipment, vehicles, batteries and mining tailings. The project will construct a comprehensive inventory identifying, quantifying and mapping CRM stocks and flows at national and regional levels across Europe. Via a user-friendly, open-access Urban Mine Knowledge Data Platform (EU-UMKDP), it will communicate the results online and combine them with primary raw materials data from the on-going Minerals4EU project. To maintain and expand the EU-UMKDP in the future, it will provide update protocols, standards and recommendations for additional statistics and improved reporting on CRM’s in waste flows required. ProSUM – “prosum” is Latin for “I am useful” – provides a factual basis for policy makers to design appropriate legislation, academia to define research priorities and to identify innovation opportunities in recovering CRMs for the recycling industry. The EUIN enables interdisciplinary collaboration, improves dissemination of knowledge and supports policy dialogues. A consortium of 17 partners, representing research institutes, geological surveys and industry, with excellence in all above domains will deliver this ambitious project.

Participants

Maria Ljunggren Söderman (contact)

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Collaborations

Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières (BRGM)

Paris, France

C-Tech Innovation

Chester, United Kingdom

Czech Geological Survey

Klárov, Czech Republic

Delft University of Technology

Delft, Netherlands

Eucobat

Zaventem, Belgium

EuroGeoSurveys (EGS)

Brussels, Belgium

Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS)

Copenhagen, Denmark

Geological Survey of Slovenia

Ljubljana, Slovenia

Geological Survey of Sweden (SGU)

Uppsala, Sweden

RECHARGE

Brussels, Belgium

Statistics Netherlands

Haag, Netherlands

Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)

Duebendorf, Switzerland

Technische Universität Berlin

Berlin, Germany

United Nations University

Tokyo, Japan

Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP)

Banbury, United Kingdom

WEEE Forum

Brussels, Belgium

Funding

European Commission (EC)

Project ID: EC/H2020/641999
Funding Chalmers participation during 2015–2017

Related Areas of Advance and Infrastructure

Sustainable development

Driving Forces

More information

Project Web Page

http://www.prosumproject.eu/

Latest update

2020-09-02