Success Story No. 12: The AshCycle Project
Ashes to Opportunities
Circular Economy Through Industrial-Urban Symbiosis
Context
According to data from the European Commission, since 1995, the amount of municipal waste incinerated in the EU has risen by 29 million tonnes or 98 % and accounted for 59 million tonnes in 2022. Ashes from the incineration of municipal solid waste, biomass, and sewage sludge are currently underutilised, and some end up in landfills. A significant number of metals, nutrients, rare earth elements and industrially valuable minerals contained in the ashes are lost as well.
AshCycle: A Processes4Planet Project
Funded by Horizon Europe under a Processes4Planet call, the AshCycle project (full title ‘Integration of Underutilized Ashes into Material Cycles by Industry-Urban Symbiosis’) kicked off on 1 June 2022, and it is being implemented by a consortium of 28 partners (of which nine SMEs), under the coordination of the A.SPIRE member, the University of Oulu.
Goals and Vision
Under the slogan ‘From ashes to opportunities’, the project has the ambitious goal to develop and demonstrate regional industry-urban symbiosis (I-US) concepts for the utilisation of incineration residues by extracting metals, nutrients, rare earth elements coupled with using the mineral residues as secondary resources in construction and wastewater treatment products. AshCycle will provide tools for reducing waste generation from the incineration of municipal solid waste (MSW) by designing new utilisation possibilities and developing and deploying pilots integrating the Industrial-Urban Symbiosis (I-US) concept.
Tools
The diverse consortium (from fields like waste management, energy production, ash processing, construction material manufacturing, water treatment, and information technology) is a testimony to the inherent cross-sectorality of the solutions developed by the project. AshCycle also designs cross-cutting solutions for the material recovery from ashes and the utilisation of the mineral residues. A cloud-based digital tool will be developed to embed modern artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms (read more HERE).
The Success Story: 34 Demonstrators and the Potential to Avoid up to 20 Mt/year of CO2 Emissions
The solutions developed by the project are demonstrated through regional, full-scale pilots, virtual or bench-scale replication cases, and digital tools.
The project coordinator, Tero Luukkonen from the University of Oulu, informed A.SPIRE that there are a total of 34 pilots in the AshCycle project, ranging from bench-scale demonstrations to full-scale pilots. The pilots are located in Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Croatia, Slovenia, and South Africa. Some of the pilots have already been completed (e.g., the preparation of concrete barrier elements in Finland using bottom ash - a byproduct of the combustion process – the coarse, non-combustible residue that remains after the incineration - from the co-combustion of refined solid fuel and biomass).
He further emphasised that by reducing the use and processing of virgin materials (especially Portland cement production), up to 20 Mt/year of CO2 emissions could be avoided if AshCycle concepts and technologies are fully implemented. Additionally, if all AshCycle concepts are fully applied, up to 25 Mt/year less waste (i.e., ashes) would be produced.
Aiming for equality and gender balance, AshCycle has 41% women in leading positions.
On 23 October 2024, the AshCycle project was presented at the Second European Process Industry Conference, organised by.ASPIRE in Brussels, during the parallel session Circularity of Resources, by Elsie Haertjens from Veolia.
The Coordinator’s Angle
When asked about what makes AshCycle a success story, the project coordinator explained that the project offers a tangible methodology towards a circular economy and enhanced European security of supply for several critical raw materials. Additionally, the project proposes a paradigm shift regarding underutilised ashes in Europe, focusing on how much resources they contain, how to recover the resources, and how to utilise the mineral residue.
A.SPIRE considers the AshCycle a promising innovative step towards a circular European economy, demonstrating how cross-sector collaboration can turn waste into valuable resources. AshCycle also highlights the potential of industrial-urban symbiosis (an innovation area of the 2050 Processes4Planet Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda), paving the way for a climate-neutral industry.
Download the leaflet for more information about the December Success Story.
Visit the AshCycle project’s website.
For more information about A.SPIRE, the Processes4Planet Partnership, and the Success Stories campaign contact the team.
