Increasing Adoption of Recycled Aluminium in Automotive Applications

Dr Scott Taylor (WMG at the University of Warwick)

The aims of this project are to identify new circular supply chains, understand the industrial interest by engaging with a variety of stakeholders throughout these supply chains, to identify the main issues surrounding recycling of aluminium alloys and to identify the most important and relevant areas of future research.

To achieve these aims staff at WMG will engage with external stakeholders through a series of meetings and workshops to identify what they see as the important areas for research, develop strategies to align these different goals and strategies and to finally produce a report detailing potential new circular supply chains, and what research should be conducted to successfully develop them.

The benefits of this white paper will be to develop an understanding of industrial interest in recycled aluminium usage, understand their needs and identify areas for research to meet these needs and develop new circular supply chains. This will enable further research to be conducted which will benefit UK industry and society through emission reductions in material production and enabling UK manufacturing to remain internationally relevant.

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2) The potential impact of circular economy concept application in the maritime transport sector

Dr Stavros Karamperidis (University of Plymouth)

This white paper will demonstrate the current position of the maritime industry and will demonstrate the advantages of circular economy applications, as well as the opportunities for stakeholders. Through the enabling strategies of life extension, this white paper will demonstrate the potential economic and environmental (raw material and emission) savings. Moreover, through the life extension approaches (structural design changes for newbuilds: maintaining the hull and modifying the equipment throughout the life, condition monitoring of existing and new ships, and retrofitting of existing fleet for the alternative fuels), short-,medium and long-term transition strategies will be developed for the industry.

This paper will also utilise the outputs of CENTS funded Circular Economy- Increased Value Extraction from End-of-Life Marine Assets, Awarded to Dr. Sefer Anil Gunbeyaz, University of Strathclyde who is also the part of the white paper team.

 

3) Transitioning Rail to the Circular Economy

Dr Simon Nadeem (University of Derby)

Building on the November publication of the Institute of Asset Management’s (IAM) White Paper on creating circular economic value, there is the need to assimilate these concepts and ideas across multiple sectors. This project will carry out this assimilation for the rail sector with the overarching Aim to develop a white paper that would create awareness of the circular economy (CE) in general and explain how the rail sector can work within a CE context at different levels of complexity, provide test cases, and to identify the need/debate for business and cultural change within the sector.

Within this scope the project will have following objectives:
1. Establishing a small and focussed internal team of stakeholders who will have industry and academic insights and influence the content of the white paper. E.g., key stakeholders and members of the supply chain. (Most of these members are already identified)
2. Produce a draft transition/assimilation of the IAM White Paper to a Rail Sector White paper (draft)
3. Gather feedback/meetings and consultation with the internal stakeholder group, update the Rail Sector White Paper.
4. Hold two workshops, e.g. North, South and engage with a selection of the rail stakeholder community that influence as well as operate within and across the rail supply chain.

This will enable the sector to become recognised as an even more sustainable mode of transport than it already is.