FOCUSED SESSION 6: Advanced Processing Pathways for Multi-Stream Critical Materials Recovery and Reuse

Critical materials recovery is increasingly essential for economic growth and development as supply chains face mounting constraints. Many sustainability innovations for high tech products depend on reliable access to critical materials, which are vital to competitiveness yet vulnerable to supply chain risk, as many are difficult to substitute in batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and energy efficient lighting, expanding their circular use is central to climate mitigation while meeting societal needs. 

Addressing this challenge requires complementary resource circulation loops—from resource saving strategies (life extension, maintenance, repair, and sharing) to resource circulation strategies (reuse, refurbishment, remanufacturing, and recycling). These activities require energy for collection, recovery, and separation; impacts can be reduced by using low carbon energy and designing processes guided by techno-economic analysis (TEA) and life cycle assessment (LCA). Energy efficient and cost-effective processes are critical to improving sustainability outcomes and easing supply chain pressure through recovery and reuse. 

Research is advancing innovative disassembly and high precision physical/chemical separations for selective, high yield, energy efficient recovery of valuable materials from complex products. Consumer proximate loops—longevity, repair, and reuse—often deliver the greatest energy and resource savings, underscoring the need for next generation materials, components, and product architectures that enable long service life, repairability, and easy disassembly/regeneration. Promising pathways also include waste valorization and stabilization to create alternative raw materials for functional and structural applications. 

This symposium solicits abstracts on upstream (manufacturing-stage) and downstream (end of life) approaches, including recycling routes; disassembly and separation technologies; system designs and enabling infrastructure; and techno economic, environmental, and TEA/LCA based assessments that advance efficient, resilient resource circulation loops. 

Proposed Session Topics 

• Recovery of critical materials from end-of-life complex products (e-waste, batteries, magnets, etc.) 

• Circular economy approaches for inorganic waste and wastewater valorization and stabilization 

• Valorization and reuse of construction and demolition (C&D) waste and secondary aggregates 

• Polymer/resin design and structural control for selective depolymerization and closed-loop recycling 

• Design for circularity: Next-generation products, materials, and joining/fastening concepts 

• Advanced powder processing for circular manufacturing and materials reuse 

• Materials processing for longevity and repairability  

• Data modeling and simulation for material-circulation strategies  

Symposium Organizers 

• Chiharu Tokoro, Waseda University, Japan 

• Beihai Ma, Argonne National Laboratory, USA 

• Enrico Bernardo, Università di Padova, Italy 

• Motoyuki Iijima, Yokohama National University, Japan 

• Anna Schneller, University of Augsburg, Germany  

• Yuki Yamaguchi, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan 

• Henry Colorado, Universidad de Antioquia, Colombia  

• Kenta Iyoki, The University of Tokyo, Japan 

• Majda Pavlin, Slovenian National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, Slovenia  

• Tohru Suzuki, National Institute for Materials Science, Japan 

• Ziqi Sun, Queensland University of Technology, Australia 

Points of Contact 

• Chiharu Tokoro; tokoro@waseda.jp 

• Beihai Ma; bma@anl.gov  

• Enrico Bernardo; enrico.bernardo@unipd.it