Waste to Product: Green Production Processes for a Circular Economy

The energy transition to defossilisation will be built on renewable energy converters which require tailored materials and a new infrastructure partially based on critical materials. This transformation to a future fossil free green circular economy will be based on sustainable materials production processes and ecologic innovations. The development of renewable materials for renewable energy converters requires sustainable large-scale production from secondary raw materials. The decision making for future resilient energy systems has to be based on environmental aspects as well as on performance criteria defined by a holistic life cycle assessment.<br/>In this lecture an efficient recyclate precursors production for materials with a programmable lifetime and regeneration will be introduced as a suitable approach. The design of circular high performance materials uses theoretical predictions and the criticality analysis of applied elements to improve the cycle life of future energy converters such as thermoelectric generators and refrigerators, batteries, electrolysers, fuel cells, plasmalysers, hydrides and solar watersplitting cells.