October 2018

Oct

SCALE co-organises second Annual Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) event

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The second Annual Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) Event offers an opportunity to a variety of stakeholders to get a fresh update about the latest EU activities in the field of Critical Raw Materials. The event will take place on 12 November 2018, during the Raw Materials Week 2018 and is co-organised by the European Commission, the following H2020 projects: SCRREEN, CROCODILE, NEMO, DEMETER, REE4EU,COLLECTORS, GLOREIA, EXTREME, SCALE, SLIM, INT-MET, ECO COM’BAT, and SustCritMat.

Oct

SCALE at Researchers’ Night

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SCALE project presented at the “Researchers’ Night” event in Stockholm, September 28th, from Prof. Kerstin Forsberg of the KTH – Royal Institute of Technology. Researchers’ Night is a Europe-wide public event dedicated to popular science and fun learning. It takes place each year in September. Around 30 countries and over 300 cities are involved. Participating events showcase what researchers really do for society in interactive and engaging

Oct

SCALE presented at H2020 Innovation Forum

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On October 4th, 2018 SCALE took part in the first H2020 Innovation Forum, a clustering event, bringing together H2020 projects, but also policy makers, end-users and industry representatives, material producers, private and public investors, start-ups and innovative SMEs. Thymis Balomenos from Aluminium of Greece, project co-ordinator, presented SCALE within the context of the clustering session, to an audience comprised by other H2020 projects,

WHAT IS SCANDIUM?

Scandium is a chemical element with symbol Sc and atomic number 21. A silvery-white metallic d-block element, it was discovered in 1879 by spectral analysis of the minerals euxenite and gadolinite from Scandinavia.

Scandium is a rare-earth metal, used in small amounts but with drastic effects on properties of matter. It is a key component in producing high strength Aluminium alloys used in aerospace and 3D printing as well as in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) applications.

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SCANDIUM SUPPLY

Scandium is present in most of the deposits of rare-earth and uranium compounds, but it is extracted from these ores in only a few mines worldwide. Scandium supply is limited due its scarcity and the high cost of its production, which currently takes place in Asia and Russia. Europe has no production of Scandium, but is home to many Scandium end-users and to industries having Scandium in their industrial residues. By converting waste into resources and thus developing a stable and secure EU scandium supply chain to serve the needs of EU aerospace and high tech industry, SCALE project will contribute to reduce dependency on imports of raw materials.

SCALE PROJECT

Scandium is an enabler in vital sectors like clean energy, transport, optics and advanced materials. Despite having a proven set of impressive applications, its volatile price and unreliable supply chain limit their deployment. SCALE develops innovative technologies that can extract economically and sustainably Sc from dilute mediums (<100 mg/L) and upgrade them to pure oxides, metals and alloys at lower energy or material cost. This will be achieved through the development of a number of innovative extraction, separation, refining and alloying technologies that will be validated in an appropriate laboratory and industrial environment to prove their technical and economic feasibility. SCALE builds on the success of previous and on-going European research projects like ENEXAL, EURARE, REECover, REE4EU and REMAGHIC.

SCALE has received funding from the European Community’s Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020/2014-2020) under grant agreement n° 730105