Amaya Arteche and Aritz Alonso
Heads of Circular Economy
Current production and consumption patterns are unsustainable to maintain economic prosperity and the well-being of future generations. A paradigm shift in production systems and consumption patterns in society is needed.
The Circular Economy is the driving force behind the transition towards sustainable production and consumption models for our society and our planet.
We support the industrial sector and public institutions in implementing a sustainable economic development model. A Circular Economy model that introduces circularity into production systems, optimises the use of raw materials, materials, products/services and energy and reduces the generation of waste to a minimum. This helps to strengthen the competitiveness of companies and create new economic activities based on the “Green Economy”.
We are involved right from the eco-design of products and processes, to the development of solutions for recycling and recovering waste. We work in the industrial environment, as well as in cities and regions. We also develop solutions in the area of the bioeconomy, through technologies that make biological resources renewable.
The Circular Economy is positioned as one of the key levers of change for preserving natural resources and the sustainability of our industry and society. Our technological proposal in the field of circular technologies will include:
- Developing sustainability, circular business and criticality assessment models
- Natural capital assessment and impacts on biodiversity
- Developing decarbonisation strategies and solutions
- Respecting and promoting European taxonomy and sustainable finance
- Protecting and preserving the natural environment (soil, water and air)
We see eco-design as a key instrument for mitigating climate change and decarbonisation.
We are working on the eco-design of new sustainable and smart materials, electronic eco-design, and on designing eco-efficient equipment, processes and assets to:
- Optimise the consumption of natural resources in products and processes and reduce their environmental impact
- Increase the useful life, by considering not only the manufacturing phases, but also the phases of reusing, remanufacturing, dismantling and recycling raw materials, components and/or products.
- Reduce manufacturing costs
- Increase the durability of products and improve maintenance.
For decades, we have been committed to a smart and sustainable manufacturing industry that will need to evolve from the current linear production and consumption model to a sustainable and circular model. To this end, industry must focus on transforming and redesigning its processes, technologies and installations to maintain, repair, upgrade, re-manufacture, de-manufacture, recover, and/or recycle products and their components.
TECNALIA helps companies in this transformation with a holistic approach, by applying combinations of different circular strategies. We work on:
- Analysing vulnerability and technological solutions for replacing critical raw materials with renewable, recycled or locally available materials
- Smart automation for an eco-efficient re-manufacturing industry
- Studies and solutions for extending life
- Reusing components and materials
- Circular Energy (energy eco-efficiency, renewable energy sources)
- Developing logistics. Industrial symbiosis
We believe strongly in the role of cities and regions as key actors for change in the transition to a more circular economy, putting citizens and administrations at the epicentre of this transition. TECNALIA would like to collaborate in promoting this urban transformation, through:
- Developing circular solutions, based on the geolocalised mapping of flows materials and waste
- Promoting the generation of circular energy
- Digital twins of urban and regional metabolism
- Reusing buildings and infrastructures
- Selective demolition of buildings and recovery of the resulting materials
- Nature-based solutions.
We create more value by converting potentially problematic waste or secondary waste streams into higher value-addedproducts; raw materials for another industrial process or energy. We achieve this by hybridising and combining different technologies depending on the nature and origin of the waste or resource to be recovered:
- CO2 capture and recovery
- Robotics and smart automation for dismantling equipment no longer in use, and sorting and characterising waste for improved efficiency in the subsequent recycling
- Recovery of materials, waste and secondary waste streams:
- New raw materials from the thermochemical, chemical and electrochemical recycling of plastics and composites. Recompounding. Processing recycled fibres
- Recovery of metals by thermal and thermo-mechanical pre-treatment, hydro/pyro and ionometallurgy from metal waste and complex waste. Transformation of waste into secondary raw materials: batteries, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), mining waste, nickel and copper smelting slag, sludge, catalysts, waste from WWTPs (waste water treatment plants), etc.
- New construction products from mineral resources in construction and demolition waste (C&DW)
- Microwave and electrolysis technologies for recovering industrial waste from the metallurgical industry
- Obtaining e-fuels, hydrogen, biogas for automotive use, grid injection, etc. from waste
We believe that digitalisation is a key technology in the transition towards a more circular production model, even in the field of the circular economy, due to its potential in closing material and waste cycles, increasing the efficiency of material consumption, minimising waste and extending the useful life of products, among other applications. To this end, we make use of and apply different digital technologies:
- Sensors, artificial intelligence, machine learning and digital twins to boost circularity
- Blockchain for traceability and data security
- Data governance linked to resources
- Digital passports
- Digital technologies with a positive impact (3D Printing)
- Monitoring behavioural neurophysiology
We are developing advanced technological solutions for a sustainable economy based on renewable biological resources, in particular biomass.
We have technology that is used throughout the entire value chain, from raw materials to the end product. We also have a business perspective and a way of using means that can offer support in the development process, from the idea until it is put into operation.
Our value proposal focuses on:
- Biorefinery: energy (hydrogen, biogas, etc.), bio-based materials and high value-added chemical products
- Characterising raw materials, and semi-finished and end products
- Food ingredients and new plant-based proteins
- Bioactive extracts and compounds with high added value
