Official start for the project "MaTiC-M - Methods and Technologies for an intelligent Circularity of Materials"
From 24-25 January 2023, the official kick-off event and the first workshop for the strategic impulse project Methods and Technologies for an intelligent Circularity of Materials (MaTiC-M) took place at the Lindner Congress Hotel in Cottbus. The two-day event was opened with greetings from Prof. Dr.-Ing. Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, chairman of the board of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and Prof. Dr. Uwe Riedel, director of the Institute of Low-Carbon Industrial Processes, project spokesperson. Dr. Tom Lorenz, head of the project, led the launch of the project, in which a total of 13 DLR institutes will be conducting joint research over the next 3 years.
The core topics of the project: circular economy and the development of sustainable technology designs - so-called designs for circularity - are becoming increasingly important in view of global climate change. For example, 80% of a product's environmental impact can be traced back to its design phase1. Up to now, the development of new products has focused on increasing efficiency and performance. End-of-life recycling perspectives are usually not considered during the development phase. As a result, many recycled materials are often not optimally usable, despite the increasing volume of scrap, because dismantling, sorting and suitable recycling are technically complicated, costly and often uneconomical.
The aim of the impulse project is to develop a holistic approach for a design-for-circularity methodology. This should make it possible to consider the traceability of the raw materials used at the end-of-life/end-of-use of the components through transparency, evaluation and further development of dismantling and recycling routes as early as the product development stage. For this purpose, AI and digitization methods as well as tools are being developed, which provide the component developer with important decision-making aids for a design that is suitable for recycling. The methods are developed on the basis of DLR pilot applications from the fields of aviation, energy and transport. In addition, an intensive exchange with industry over the entire duration of the project is intended to ensure transfer to broad fields of application.
1 Second EU Action Plan for the Circular Economy: