The WhiteCycle consortium is always interested to create new connections. Specific events like WhiteCycle’s workshops and networking sessions are the perfect places for both the consortium and interested third parties to discuss about the project, gather needs and feedbacks from interested industrial and academic structures across Europe, discuss ways of cooperation and extension of the WhiteCycle project. Please subscribe to the WhiteCycle’s newsletter at the bottom of this page and stay tune to participate to the next WhiteCycle’s workshop. You can also send your request via the website contact tab by choosing “event linked to the project”.
Reminder: The list of the partners of the European project is defined at the beginning of the project and can not be changed during the life of the project. Therefore, it is not possible to integrate the project as a new partner.
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WhiteCycle project is an Innovation and Action project which started in July 2022. This project follows a classic European project timing with milestones and deliverables that are defined in the project agreement. It will last 48 months. There are technological and technical deliverables, and also some related to environmental, societal, economic and dissemination impacts. In addition to the partners involved in the technical development of the value chain, partners such as Erasme, IPoint, HVL, AXELERA are fully integrated in the project.
Even if it will include more and more recycled PET quantities, we will stay during the project at a pilot scale. Industrial scale up will start from the end of the research activities, in sept 2023. The project will conduct a full circle loop from real complex waste feedstock to representative product of the 3 use-cases (Tyres, hoses, multicomponent clothes) at TRL 5. Then, a strong up scale study will allow the process steps to reach TRL 6 to 8 (preindustrial scale).
The estimate of 2 million tons of CO2 eq reduction in the atmosphere due to the Whitecycle project is based on several assumptions that will be updated throughout the project. Preliminary LCA carried out internally, validated by Quantis and supported by the literature, indicate a lowering of CO2 emission in the production of 1 kg of rPET from EoL tyre waste transformation chain compared to 1 kg of virgin PET from fossil based PM. Furthermore, reusing wastePET in this way avoids the incineration therefore the corresponding CO2 emissions. These figures will be consolidated during the project, taking into account data from pre-industrial implementation. A critical review of the LCA of the technology will then be carried out to communicate the detailed gains made. This first study, and as will be the case in the rest of the project with the LCA updates, already allows the identification of the eco-design paths to be followed. You can also address your request in the contact tab of the website by choosing “LCCA, sustainability and data analysis”
The importance of creating a value chain around the circular economy is clearly unifying for all the partners. The complementarity of skills and expertise constitue the core of the consortium.
We position ourselves within the framework of the creation of a value chain which consists in transforming complex PET waste into a very high-quality raw material to be reintroduced into a new product. This value chain contains several successive phases in which we find the different partners:
• Collection, identification and sorting of complex waste containing PET plastic: SYNERGIE TLC, ALIAPUR, ESTATO, IRIS, CNRS PPRIME, MICHELIN
• Pre-treatment of PET plastic enriched waste followed by biological recycling (use of enzyme) to break down PET plastic into monomers and purification: MICHELIN, IFTH, CARBIOS
• Polymerisation of the monomers to make new PET plastic: DIFT
• Transformation of PET plastic into fibre: IFTH and KORDSA
• Integration and validation of PET plastic fibre in tyres, hoses and textiles: MICHELIN, MANDALS, INDITEX
Wastes to be recycled are recovered by ALiapur (for tyres in France), MANDALS (for hoses), and [AX1] SYNERGIE TLC for complex textile clothing.
Turkey, like many EU related countries, has specific agreements to participate in this type of consortium. Turkey is an Associated Member in Horizon Europe program.
WhiteCycle and BlackCycle aim to set up a circular economy for tyres, hence the word CYCLE in the name of the two projects. Whitecycle aims to upscale innovative processes of the recycling of PET from complex wastes (End of life tyres, hoses, multicomponent clothes). In fiber form, PET is white hence the name Whitecycle. BlackCycle deals with the recycling of rubber materials that give the tyre its black colour, hence the name BLACKCYCLE.
Please address your specific interview request in the contact tab of this website by choosing “Dissemination, Communication, Outreach and Replication”
