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
- Circulaire economie: van monitoring naar sturing Resultaten en impact van vijf jaar beleidsonderzoek naar circulaire economie Een circulaire economie die bloeit en groeit. Welk beleid hebben we ervoor nodig? Wat kunnen we leren uit de cijfers en hoe kunnen we die inzetten als hefboom voor beter beleid? Tijdens dit event van het CE Center staat de rol van datamonitoring centraal: hoe kan het de circulaire transitie in Vlaanderen voeden en sturen? We zoomen in op de inzichten uit vijf jaar onderzoek die toepasbaar en relevant
- SIM2 KU Leuven on Kazakhstani tv following the signing of the Collaboration Agreement between D. Serikbayev East Kazakhstan Technical University and our Institute, for a Joint Research & Training Centre on Critical Raw Materials and Sustainable Metallurgy. This happened in the context of the BE-KZ Royal State Mission in Astana with Their Majesties, the BE-KZ Ministers, CEO's and Rectors. Following the 2 Round Tables on Critical Minerals and the Rectors Forum on AI. Interview with EKTU's Rector Saule Rakhmetullina on 24KZ. Peter
- 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
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