EcoSolar envisions an integrated value chain to manufacture and implement solar panels in the most ecologic way by maximising resource efficiency, taking into account reuse of materials during production and repurposing solar panel components at end of life stage. EcoSolar will demonstrate that during the lifetime of a solar electricity producing field, individual panels can be monitored, allowing to identify defaulting panels at an early stage, replacing or repairing them and thus to increase the overall energy yield. In WP1, SINTEF&Norsun will work on recovery & reuse during silicon ingot crystallisation, addressing recovery of argon purge gas and work with Steuler on reusable crucibles. In WP2 Garbo will recover Si-kerf-loss during wafering, and with SINTEF work on potential reuse applications, like as Si-feedstock in crystallisation processes, or as resource in crucible manufacturing or lithium ion battery production. In WP3, ISC&SoliTek will look into potential for re-using process water; reducing material resources, like chemicals and silver, by smarter solar cell design, more efficient processes and recovery and reuse of chemicals; AIMEN will develop solar cell monitoring and repair for inline processing in an industrial plant, to enable remanufacturing. In WP4 Apollon will use a module design that results in reduced bill of materials, enables remanufacturing and reuse of components from modules that showed failures after assembly or have been identified as malfunctioning in operating PV installations, based on integrated diagnosis techniques for the detection of failure modes. bifa will collect data from all previous WPs to assess environmental impact of the intended innovations (WP5). Bifa will identify waste streams that are costly and hard to recycle and find opportunities to repurpose those waste products. BCC will disseminate the results and will support the partners with the exploitation and replication potential of the results (WP6).

Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a Thermoplastic Polymer increasingly used in several applications due to its excellent physical and chemical properties. With the increase in the amount of PET wastes, its disposal began to pose serious economic and environmental problems; current PET waste disposal options include incineration, landfilling and recycling. Landfilling and incineration are outdated processes, their environmental impact is high and the dependency from crude oil is critical. Recycling is the preferred option for the treatment of waste PET: plastics must be a resource and their recycling is the only way to make sustainable the plastic production chain in Europe without loss of material. The recycling of PET does not only serve as a partial solution to the solid waste problem but also contributes to the conservation of raw petrochemical products and energy. The proposed project aims at implementing an industrial plant to produce high quality PET through the chemical recycling of PET wastes (icluding opaque & multi-layer) and promotes true sustainable development of PET production enabling virtually endless PET re-use. Garbo’s chemical recycling technology represents a novel and industrial applicable technology for the transformation of PET based wastes in monomer (BHET) that can be purified and re-used in the production of PET as raw material instead of terephthalic acid (TPA) and ethylene glycol (EG), with enormous advantage for the polyester value chain in terms of competitiveness and jobs creation. The Garbo's technology serves 3 purposes: helping Europe to obtain “Zero Plastics to landfill by 2025” recommended by the most important associations in the plastic market promoting the Circular Economy Package as required by the European Plastics value chain and representing a new way for the European PET producers to reduce the dependence and the influence of the raw materials (TPA and EG) derived from crude oil and, consequently, their correlated costs.

The massive industrial use of Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) poses serious economic and environmental problems due to its poor recyclability. Current PET disposal options include incineration, landfilling and recycling while a relevant amount is still dumped into oceans. Landfilling and incineration are however outdated since environmentally unsustainable. Recycling is the preferred option, but a series of technological barriers limit the recycling into high-quality rPET (recycled PET). The ChemPET project aims to scale-up a cutting-edge chemical recycling technology, based on glycolysis, for PET based waste converting it into monomer BHET. Currently, there are no alternatives which guarantee efficient results at industrial scale considering heterogeneous PET feedstock. BHET can be newly used as raw material in the production of virgin PET instead of the terephthalic acid (TPA) and the ethylene glycol (EG) that derive from crude oil. This determines advantages for the PET value chain in terms of environmental sustainability, competitiveness and job creation. ChemPET will help Europe to achieve the “Zero Plastics to landfill by 2025”, promoting the Circular Economy and reducing Europe dependency on fossil feedstocks. ChemPET project foresees the technical improvement of ChemPET technology and the valorisation of by-products. After the optimization of the BHET production phase, GARBO will collaborate with many stakeholders across plastic industry value chain to maximize the business opportunities and foster the uptake of ChemPET technology. The production of chemical recycled PET (crPET) from BHET will close the loop supporting the growth of the circular economy thus reshaping the PET value chain at whole. Large occupational benefits are expected by the replication of ChemPET process.