This spring it was decided that the professorship would be endowed at Chalmers University of Technology in Göteborg. Stena Metall is guaranteeing funding for 10 years as a further step in its efforts to develop resource-efficient recycling processes.
Christian Ekberg received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Chalmers. In recent years he has worked with the separation of spent nuclear fuel as well as methods for industrial recycling of metals from waste. The same methods are used in other applications as well.
“Initially I would like to steer the professorship in two directions,” says Christian Ekberg. “One is developing opportunities to recycle precious metals from catalytic converters in cars. Another pressing area is incinerator ash. Metals leach from ash before it can be spread, and a great deal of the remaining metallic mixture that today simply ends up in landfills can instead be recycled.”
Christian Ekberg will start work on these two areas as soon as he begins his tenure on January 1. In the future the recycling of electronic scrap will be among the areas that offer potential for further development. The plan is to create a center of excellence that coordinates and utilizes expertise within as well as outside Chalmers.
The focus of the professorship is unique and fills a void in the research world. Possible development areas mentioned by Stena Metall include recycling of rare metals and recycling metals and plastics from waste that now ends up incinerated or in landfills.
“We are very pleased, after an extensive recruitment process, to have found a professor with a Ph.D. in the area of recycling who also happened to come from Chalmers,” says Christer Forsgren, Head of Technology and Environmental Science at Stena Metall.
About recycling
Recycling converts waste into a resource that can be reused time and again in the ecocycle instead or incinerated or disposed in landfills. Recycling results in significant environmental benefits.
About the Stena Metall Group
Stena Metall is the leading recycling company in the Nordic region. Sophisticated processes and logistics solutions enable Group companies to process ferrous and non-ferrous metals, recovered paper, plastics, WEEE, hazardous waste and other production waste. Operations span more than 230 locations in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Poland, Germany, Austria and Russia.
www.stenametall.com
About Chalmers
Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden is strongly rooted in the natural sciences. Many research projects are at the cutting edge of international research. The goal is to actively contribute to sustainable development nationally and internationally. Chalmers has a reputation for entrepreneurship and closely cooperates with industry and the rest of society. www.chalmers.se
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