H2020 PureNano: A purification/regeneration process of spent plating baths base on functionalized magnetic nanoparticles

Grant agreement ID: 821431

Funded under: CE-SC5-01-2018 – Methods to remove hazardous substances and contaminants from secondary raw materials

PureNano is a research-intensive innovation project involving 12 entities from 6 European countries that proposes an innovative, low cost, sustainable method for purification of plating baths which will lead to a significant extension of their life that will have as a result decrease of operation expenditures of plating shops, decrease of environmental risks from transportation of spent baths and increase of process efficiency and products quality.

The surface treatment industry plays a major role in extending the life of metallic components used in various industrial sectors, as well as on providing high aesthetics in consuming products. The surface treatment sector is a relatively small sector compared to the whole of mechanical engineering and metal working, but it is one of the most significant cross-sectorial manufacturing branches in the European economy. The Global metal finishing market is growing at a CAGR of 6.50% during the period 2014-2020. Among all the segments in the market the inorganic metal finishing market dominates the rest in terms of both market share and volume. Due to the increasing demand from end user industries such as Automotive, Electronics, Aerospace and Consumer goods the global market for inorganic metal finishing technologies was worth 64.2 € billion in 2014 and is expected to reach 95.8 € billion with a CAGR of 6.91% by the end of 2020. Among the inorganic metal finishing technologies inorganic metal finishing processes have the largest share of market worth 42.1 € billion in 2014.

The project aims at developing a new concept for water treatment using tailor-made magnetic beads to enable a better and selective removal of pollutants and reduced discharge to the environment. Functionalized magnetic beads provide opportunities to target and remove pollutants that treatment technologies currently available fail to achieve and can be used complementary to existing water treatment technologies.

The PureNano consortium is composed of 12 European partners and have a deep knowledge of the sector. PureNano is well-balanced between Industrial partners and Academia including 7 industrial partners (SMEs), 4 RTDs and 1 Association. Universities and research institutes (PoliMi, RISE, ISQ, NTUA) will provide the necessary laboratories, space, equipment, testing and computing facilities. Industrial partners (Captive, Gaser, Tecnochimica, Cnano, Kampak, IDE) will access their processing/production facilities, contribute their expertise in product development, validation & characterization and allocate the necessary funds for the demo scale applications foreseen in PureNano. ASFIMET, as an active association in the plating sector and following regulations of CEN and ISO, will be the key to use standardization to enhance the impact of the project. Besides the technical personnel, the partners will deploy experienced personnel from their sales departments to assist in the marketing strategy for the new products and processes developed (AXIA).

For more information visit H2020 website: https://www.purenano-h2020.eu/