| Project Detail |
Making greener electronics using wood materials
Consumer electronics and internet of things solutions have become increasingly cheap and available; this is leading to increasingly high amount of electronic waste. The EU-funded HyPELignum project seeks to demonstrate that this can be made more sustainable by combining additive manufacturing and wood based materials. The project will propose and demonstrate a holistic approach, from the sourcing of raw materials to the end of life, to manufacture net-zero carbon electronics. The project will aim to show how wood and wood-waste derived materials can be core (substrate, ink components) for the additive manufacturing of electronics. The project will also develop an energy-efficient microchip for sensing systems as well as look at new ways to recycle wood and recover electronic materials.
Reshaping the life-cycle of electronics, from raw materials to end-of-life, is inevitably one of the fundamental steps to accomplish towards a sustainable economy and society. The ambition of the HyPELignum project is to propose and demonstrate a holistic approach (from sourcing of raw materials until the end-of-life of devices) for the manufacturing of electronics with net zero carbon emissions centred around additive manufacturing and wooden and wood derived materials (i.e. bio-derived or bio-polymers from wood waste). Wood has been identified since it is a largely available and technically versatile material which has and will keep having a key relevance in constructions and households (New European Bauhaus initiative). Furthermore, its biogenic nature makes it pivotal in the European Community effort toward a carbon neutral society. HyPELignum pillars are: (i) implementation of the biogenic material, wood, as substrate for the additive manufacturing of electronic; (ii) implementation of Lignocellulosic materials (from wood production waste), bio-derived resins and abundant and low impact transition metals in the needed functional materials; (iii) the development of highly energy efficient µchip for driving integrated sensing systems; (iv) exploring new avenues for allowing the recycling of wood and recovery of electronic materials. Importantly in addition to the technical development the project will also dedicate a significant effort in the sustainability assessment (life cycle, toxicity, and biodegradability) to: (i) contribute actively to the consolidation of the definition of green and circular electronics and (ii) to propose a decision-making tool for assessment of green and circular electronics. |
