In the spotlight: Prof. Tom Hennebel, co-supervisor of two SuPER-W ESRs and project leader at Umicore

Within the SuPER-W programme, Dr. Tom Hennebel co-supervises two ESRs, Amelia Parao and Nina Ricci Nicomel. Although Dr. Hennebel is also a guest lecturer at Ghent University, he is primarily employed by Umicore, a leading international company in materials technology. This company, with headquarters in Belgium, produces materials for the automotive, construction, electronics industries … with a focus on recycling metals of end-of-life products. The company is stimulating the circular economy, mainly by offering an alternative for the extraction of primary raw materials and resources.
Tom Hennebel: “We are not only relying on our own experts or knowledge but we seek actively for interaction with the academic community. By giving guest lectures and co-supervising students at universities, Umicore wants to contribute to training the next generation of experts and give them an opportunity to use the tools and knowledge available within the company. It’s a win-win for both students, universities and companies. Students with a background in mining, geology, chemistry,… should have the opportunity to become an expert with a holistic view on the entire value chain and the potential to contribute to the sustainable management of  natural resources.”

Recycling, batteries and cleaner air

Primary resources are becoming a scarcity. Therefore, Umicore focuses on urban mining and recycling metals by collecting end-of-life products like cell phones, notebooks, tablet,… and extracting the metals and useful materials from these products. In the search for sustainable, economical and socially responsible technologies, students can be of great help. They can deliver new insights and interact with experts on  a wide variety of challenges. For example, one of the biggest challenges is how to better collect these end-of- life products, as their abundance is quite diffused compared to primary resources being mostly centralized on selected spots. In the current economic climate the search for alternatives to fossil resources and the demand for batteries is bigger than ever. Umicore develops technologies and conducts research for the use of recycled materials while decreasing the use of primary resources in the production of batteries, electric cars, trucks, electronic devices,… On the other hand Umicore strongly invests in developing new batteries. Tom Hennebel: “By supporting programs like Smart Design, the recycling process of batteries can be considered already at the stage of production. Umicore puts a lot of effort in searching for experts and training them to assist in the development of these technologies.”. Technological solutions enabling the production of cleaner air such as catalysts are a third field of expertise that Umicore embraces. Next to the production of catalysts for the automotive industry, the recycling processes for used catalysts are equally important.

Added value for SuPER-W

Prof. Hennebel’s expertise is situated in the field of biometallurgy, a section of metallurgy that focuses on the development of microbial and biochemical conversion processes for the extraction of metals from ores, liquid and solid waste. These processes are the foundation of a wide variety of technologies focused on biomining and recovery of resources (e.g., platina, selenium and tellurium) from solid waste, wastewater, and industrial process residues with the use of bacteria.

Tom Hennebel: “By participating in the SuPER-W programme, I want to create awareness on the circular economy and importance of metal recycling processes. We cannot mine primary resources forever and dump our waste without recycling metals. In the entire metal collection and recycling process, losses of materials in each step are still high. Mostly primary materials are still being added to compensate for those losses. Therefore, it is important to conduct research to develop technologies minimizing losses in those confluents of recycling processes. However, extracting little quantities of metals from liquid and solid waste is often a costly and time consuming process. Companies such as Umicore and academic experts can develop technologies to harvest those metals in a sustainable way with the use of bacteria, consuming less energy and less chemicals.“