The RECYCALYSE consortium has been working on a recycling process design for the PEMEC system.

Our partner Accurec has been working on the recycling process design for the PEMEC system based on the components and materials in the PEMEC system. Accurec first focused on analyzing the material of different components. Then, based on the structure and geometry of components and materials in the system, Accurec has designed an automatic sorting process which is able to selective pick the Nafion membrane which contains the PGMs out of the waste stream.

Next, the rest parts of the components and materials will go through a hydrometallurgical process for further recycling. The target of this process is to recover the Ti as well as Ferrous part.

The designed recycling process intends to have a smart separation process in the 1st step so the limited amount of PGM can be recycled in a dedicated process and will not need to go through all the hydrometallurgy which is targeted for Ti recycling and possibly being lost in the process.

In conclusion, the designed process will fulfil the specification in WEEE directive 2019/19/EU which requires 75 wt.% material being recycled.