{"id":2784,"date":"2024-06-14T00:48:51","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T00:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=2784"},"modified":"2024-06-14T00:48:51","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T00:48:51","slug":"electronics-made-of-wood-and-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/2784\/electronics-made-of-wood-and-paper\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronics made of wood and paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greener sensors, circuit boards and other electronic devices are being developed by EU researchers to reduce unsustainably high levels of e-waste.<\/p>\n

By<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0Michael Allen<\/p>\n

To develop eco-friendly electronics such as sensors and circuit boards, Dr Valerio Beni is following the paper trail \u2013 literally.<\/p>\n

An expert in green chemistry at Swedish research institute RISE, Beni has switched his focus to wood from pulp in a bid to make consumer electronic devices that have no carbon footprint and are easier to recycle.<\/p>\n

In the woodwork<\/strong><\/p>\n

He and his colleagues discovered that producing pulp and turning it into paper for a new generation of electronics required burning too much energy for the effort to be as environmentally friendly as they had hoped.<\/p>\n

\u2018So we thought, why don\u2019t we take a step back and go to the initial material for making paper?\u2019 said Beni. \u2018That is wood.\u2019<\/p>\n

He leads a research project that received EU funding to explore ways to make consumer electronics with wood-based materials.<\/p>\n

Called HyPELignum<\/a>, the project runs for four years through September 2026 and brings together research institutes, a university and industry representatives from Austria, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain.<\/p>\n

The life cycles of current electronics are unsustainable. In addition to the energy and raw materials needed for production, the gadgets result in mountains of waste once they get discarded.<\/p>\n

In 2022, the world generated a record 62 billion tonnes of e-waste \u2013 or 7.8 kilogrammes per person \u2013 with Europe producing 17.6 billion tonnes, more than any other region, according to United Nations\u00a0data<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That worldwide mountain has almost doubled from 34 billion tonnes in 2010 and is projected to increase to 82 billion tonnes by 2030.<\/p>\n

In addition to growing fast, e-waste is complex to manage, according to the UN. In 2022, only about a fifth of global e-waste was recycled \u2013 although Europe fared better by recycling around 43%.<\/p>\n

Better boards<\/strong><\/p>\n

Circuit boards are the main component of e-waste.<\/p>\n

As much as 60% of the environmental impact of electronics is caused by a device\u2019s circuit board, according to Beni.<\/p>\n

The boards are a layered matrix of materials \u2013 usually resins, plastics and copper, which are hard to recycle. They\u2019re etched to imprint metal circuits, onto which electronic components can be soldered.<\/p>\n

As an alternative, the HyPELignum team is developing two types of wooden circuit board.<\/p>\n

One is made of thin layers of wood, a bit like plywood. The other is constructed from cellulose fibres extracted from wood and wood waste.<\/p>\n

\u2018The idea is to try and replace some of the high carbon-intensive materials in electronics with low carbon-intensive material,\u2019 Beni said.<\/p>\n

The circuits are printed \u2013 rather than etched \u2013 onto the wooden boards using conductive metal inks developed by the project. These inks also contain cellulose and bio-based plastics produced from wood.<\/p>\n

At the end of their life, the wooden boards should be easier to recycle than traditional circuit boards. It might even be possible to compost them.<\/p>\n

New layers\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A key challenge with recycling electronics is separating the components from the circuit boards.<\/p>\n

To tackle this, the HyPELignum researchers are developing thermally and chemically degradable layers that can be placed between the wood and the printed circuits.<\/p>\n

When these are destroyed at the end of a product\u2019s life, the circuits and electrical components fall off the wood. The wooden board and the mainly metal circuit and components can then be sent to different recycling streams.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the degradable layers are also derived from wood. The project has been producing them from lignin extracted from wood waste.<\/p>\n

Such \u201cgreen chemistry\u201d emits much less carbon dioxide (CO2) by featuring biogenic materials that can be renewed rather than fossil oil, according to Beni.<\/p>\n

\u2018Wood and biogenic materials are more or less zero in terms of CO2 impact,\u2019 he said. \u2018They absorb CO2 to grow and then they release the same CO2 when used.\u2019<\/p>\n

More and more<\/strong><\/p>\n

The global population\u2019s ever-increasing appetite for digital devices is driving the need for greener versions, according to Dr Corne Rentrop, an expert in electronics and sustainable production at Dutch research organisation TNO.<\/p>\n

\u2018We want more data, we want more connectivity, we want to have internet everywhere, so the amount of electronics needed to equip that is growing constantly,\u2019 Rentrop said.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the lifetime of electronics is decreasing.<\/p>\n

\u2018If you look at your electronic devices, they last for four to five years,\u2019 Rentrop said. \u2018That is basically it.\u2019<\/p>\n

He leads a separate EU-funded project to reduce the carbon footprint of electronic-device production and improve recycling.<\/p>\n

Called ECOTRON<\/a>, it runs for four years through August 2026 and has a range of participants from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain.<\/p>\n

Flexible films<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like its HyPELignum counterpart, the ECOTRON team is seeking to replace traditional circuit boards with ones made from renewable materials.<\/p>\n

\u2018We can be more sustainable because the process requires less energy than producing standard circuit boards,\u2019 Rentrop said.<\/p>\n

But instead of wood, he and his colleagues are creating flexible films from materials like bio-based plastics and paper.<\/p>\n

At the end of their life, bioplastic boards could be melted and recycled \u2013 and maybe even composted.<\/p>\n

\u2018Compostable electronics would be fantastic,\u2019 Rentrop said. \u2018Paper is of course a compostable material, but the inks and the electrical components are not.\u2019<\/p>\n

To overcome this hurdle, the project is developing reversible interconnects that can be triggered to release the electrical components.<\/p>\n

Company cases<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ECOTRON researchers are taking existing products and working to replace them with more sustainable electronics.<\/p>\n

A Finnish company named Polar Electro, which makes devices that monitor fitness and athletic training, is participating in an effort to produce a wearable chest strap that measures a person\u2019s heart rate.<\/p>\n

The project has replaced an existing Polar Electro chest strap with a bio-based version whose performance is comparable, according to Rentrop.<\/p>\n

Working with pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, the team is developing smart stickers that contain temperature loggers for vaccine packages.<\/p>\n

Healthcare professionals administering vaccines can access this temperature data using a handheld device such as a smartphone to check that each dose has been stored properly.<\/p>\n

In this case, the researchers are working with paper, producing devices that can be recycled.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are making an electronic device which is regarded as paper,\u2019 Rentrop said. \u2018This is recycling by design.\u2019<\/p>\n

Research in this article was funded by the EU\u2019s Horizon Programme. The views of the interviewees don\u2019t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission.<\/em><\/p>\n

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