Overview
SIM² KU Leuven is the KU Leuven Institute for Sustainable Metals and Minerals, formally endorsed by the KU Leuven Academic Council. The institute advances sustainable production and recycling of metals, minerals, and engineered materials through problem-driven research, education, and wider-society learning.
In the news
- Third and final day of #ICHS2026 included four excellent contributions: - Niels Verbaan (Verbaan Consulting Inc., Canada) provided us with new insights regarding the ramping up of projects in connection with the McNulty ramp up profiles. Surprisingly, very little projects reach the designed capacity within the first few years. - Jan Luyten (Umicore, Belgium) presented the material and recycling solutions offered by Umicore on CRMs and highlighted some of the myths going around about the circular economy. E.g. good design or a good
- Day 2 of the ICHS2026 is a wrap! On LinkedIn one often reads how “inspirational” and “enriching” the various sessions were. We like to leave those appreciations to our audience themselves. Instead, we give an overview of the speakers & topics and do a bold attempt to summarize and highlight some key insights of the day. Stay tuned on our website to review the presentations: https://ichs2026.cirmet.eu - George P Demopoulos (McGill University, Canada) discussed the latest technological frontiers for lithium-ion battery material
- Kicking off the 2nd International Circular Hydrometallurgy Symposium (ICHS 2026)! Around 200 participants from industry & academia, coming from Europe and way beyond, gather in Mechelen (Belgium) to exchange on building the future of circular, sustainable metal processing. Prof. Koen Binnemans opened the symposium reminding the audience of the twelve principles of #circular #hydrometallurgy, setting the stage for three days of scientific exchange on solvent extraction, precious‑metal refining, battery recycling, rare earths
- Last Monday, KU Leuven SIM² had the pleasure of welcoming a delegation from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), one of the world’s leading universities (ranked #1 in Australia, and positioned 79th in THE2026). A key focus of the visit was the exchange on UNSW’s research strength in #CleanEnergy and next-generation mining technology for critical minerals. A large potential synergy with SIM² was identified in terms of #resourcerecovery from mine tailings, recycling of photovoltaic panels, and advanced metal purification. A
- 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐯𝐢𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞? 𝐒𝐈𝐌𝟐 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐣𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐢𝐧 Meet Ponnapat Watjanatepin, postdoctoral researcher in the group of Prof. Karel Van Acker at Materials Engineering | KU Leuven. His research combines Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Assessment (TEA) to evaluate how sustainable and economically viable new technologies
- 𝗖𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿? 𝗦𝗜𝗠² 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀: 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗖é𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝗖𝗼𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘀 Meet Cédric Coomans, PhD researcher in the SOLVOMET R&T Centre of Prof. Koen Binnemans. Within the ELECTRA project, he is developing semi-empirical thermodynamic models that would make the separation of rare earth elements more efficient and significantly reduce the amount of experimental work required for designing counter-current rare earth
- 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗮 𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗰 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿? 𝗦𝗜𝗠² 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗦𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀: 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗚𝗮ë𝗹𝗹𝗲 𝗕𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻 Meet Gaëlle Butin, a postdoctoral researcher in the HiTemp group of Prof. Bart Blanpain at Materials Engineering | KU Leuven. Together with Zinc producer Nyrstar, she studies what happens inside industrial zinc roasters to make zinc production more reliable and efficient. Her research focuses on understanding why particles sometimes stick
- 𝗦𝗽𝗿𝗮𝘆, 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲, 𝗦𝗼𝗿𝘁: 𝗦𝗜𝗠𝟮 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝘆𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 Meet Christian Steuwe, Lukas Brijs and Zhou Fang from the research group of Prof. Rob Ameloot at KU Leuven. Through their project RECYCLEAR, they are tackling one of the biggest challenges in recycling: sorting. Their research makes valuable materials visible using fluorescent tagging. By applying a selective spray, plastics or minerals containing specific metals light up under UV light, allowing
Related profiles
Something wrong or missing? Send an update. Fixed within 24 hours.