The PCI – Creative Science Park and the University of Coimbra are representing the Microelectronics Agenda at the E-Waste World 2025 Conference and Expo, taking place in Frankfurt. The goal is to showcase an innovative hydrometallurgical process for recycling precious metals from electronic waste, developed within Work Package 15 (WP15) of the Agenda.
Prof. Paula Morais, lead researcher of WP15, and Dr. Marta Lopes, manager of the Microelectronics Agenda at PCI, were present today at the Agenda’s stand, which welcomed numerous international visitors and contacts interested in this more sustainable alternative to current pyrometallurgical recycling methods.
Interest was high, with several partnership proposals for future projects, both for scaling up the process and for applying the technology in areas such as battery recycling, silicon recycling, and recycling in saline environments. Contacts came from companies and research centers in countries including Germany, Poland, Japan, Brazil, and India.
The exhibition concludes tomorrow, and another influx of visitors is expected at the Microelectronics Agenda stand.
The Microelectronics Agenda benefits from a total eligible budget of €67,493,749.21, of which €30,048,411.91 is funded by the NextGenerationEU initiative. With completion scheduled for June 30, 2025, the project has already executed over 60% of its budget and has made significant progress in product development, sustainability, and talent training — positioning Portugal as a future leader in the global semiconductor sector.
