CLOSER - Circular raw materiaLs for european Open Strategic autonomy on chips and microlEctronics pRoduction

THE PROJECT:

Silicon, Gallium, Indium and Germanium are the most used semiconductor materials. Europe is relatively poor of these elements in its soil: for instance it was estimated that Europe can provide only 1% of the raw materials needed to produce the batteries needed for the Green Deal. For this reason and for economic reason, Europe imports most of the electronic components from the Far East and USA. The current geopolitical crisis enlightens the risk of a strong dependence of strategic materials from Third Countries. The project aims to tackle the development of an EU supply chain that can recover and reuse secondary semiconductor raw materials from e-waste and industrial waste in the manufacturing of chips and related products. in an ambitious target as in most recent times much know-how has been lost in the EU due to the delocalization or the termination of some important technological processes due to economic reasons or their high environmental impacts (i.e. galvanization processes). The General Objective of CLOSER is to establish a pan-European network of regional stakeholders dedicated to the efficient collection, recycling, and reprocessing of semiconductor-based components. This initiative aims to reclaim and repurpose semiconductor raw materials from microelectronics, solar panels, and industrial waste across Europe, contributing significantly to the EU's domestic demand in this domain. The CLOSER demonstration cases will show how, according to the principles of circularity and urban mining, material/components (discharged Circular Entities) coming from the processes belonging to selected Smart Specializations of each participating Region are re-processed or re-manufactured to provide: i) secondary semiconductor Critical Raw Materials for micro-electronic production and ii) re-manufactured components to those European sectors more depending on external supply, such as automotive, aerospace, renewable energy, health, computing.