IQE participates in the aid for investment in circular economy facility under the Call for subsidies, within the Government of Aragón ERDF Aragón 20221-2027 programme to promote investment in circular economy, and to implement in Aragón business projects that include experimental development and/or industrial research in circular economy in 2022 and 2023.
Project Year 2022: Recovery of precipitated silica wastewater through a circular economy strategy, incorporating the use of distillation membrane technology.
This R&D project aims to develop an innovative technology for the treatment of precipitated silica waste. The aim is to implement a Circular Economy strategy in the precipitated silica industry that will mitigate the environmental impact caused by the discharge of the by-product generated (sodium sulphate), recovering 100% of the water for the production process itself (reduction of water abstraction and reuse of discharge water), the recovery of sodium sulphate as a high purity product of commercial interest, and finally, thanks to the use of distillation membranes, the reduction of the carbon footprint of the process of obtaining anhydrous sodium sulphate designed compared to the standard based on mineral products.
Project Year 2023: ZEOXICON. Photo-oxidative treatments on zeolite by-product for the manufacture of low carbon footprint construction additives.
IQE’s strategy is based on using waste from the aluminium industry as raw materials in its production processes, in a clear exercise of circular economy. The current recovery process has the environmental disadvantage of being an energy-intensive process due to the need for evaporation of these streams, which are highly diluted. Work will be done to find alternatives with a lower carbon footprint. We will work to find alternatives with a lower carbon footprint.
