Battelle Scientists Actively Working on Real-World Solutions for the Circular Economy

At Battelle, we’ve been using science to help society for nearly a century. In our vision for the future, we reuse materials instead of creating waste and protect our natural environment in a closed-loop economy. That’s why we’re interested in—and focused on—the circular economy.

Battelle has developed expertise in advanced materials, remediation, health and national security over many years. In the recent past, we worked on a project to get valuable rare earth oxides from coal fly ash using an acid digestion process. Currently, we are working on projects that appear at various spots in the metaphorical loop describing the circular economy.

A recent paper by Battelle scientists describes where in the waste cycle critical materials can be found as well as the lack of applicable technology for recovering them from e-waste. We’ve described the challenge of medical device waste and our holistic approach to reducing it in an Inside Battelle blog. Additionally, our Innovations in Climate Resilience Conference (ICR) has successfully brought together innovators to tackle climate resilience, with ICR25 preparations being made now for April, 2025.

We also have robust funding for internally developed technology. Right now, scientists and engineers at Battelle are working on internal R&D projects with the potential to create sustainable materials that can make the United States far more self-sufficient. Advances in batteries and ways to separate magnets and rare earth elements (REE) from electronic waste streams are just a few examples of resource-efficiency research projects.   

These are some of our other green economy programs of note: 

Battelle GreenLoop™

In a world of fast fashion, there’s no need to send unwanted clothes to the landfill. Battelle has internally developed a circular plastics recycling and upcycling technology called GreenLoop™ that converts mixed plastic waste (end-of-life textiles with cotton, polyester, elastane, lycra, and nylons) into compostable and biodegradable materials. The goal: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also creating a recyclable, biodegradable, compostable, and microplastic-free polyester replacement in support of a zero-waste economy.

EMRTAI Program

Did you know there are more than 100 superfund mining sites and more than 100,000 abandoned mineral mining sites in the United States? Imagine cleaning up mining waste while at the same time recovering strategic metals that are in short supply currently and/or must be purchased from foreign countries.

There’s a lot of waste piled up at these old mines—much of it containing valuable and much-needed rare earth resources for things such as batteries, magnetics and photovoltaics. Through a cooperative agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Battelle is leading a three-year program called the Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment Initiative (EMRTAI). 

To monitor and recover critical minerals in mine waste, Battelle will conduct technical evaluations and demonstrations to spur innovation and use of technologies during clean-up and restoration of historical mine sites. These evaluations will show how technologies are commercially ready to be used to recover more than 50 such minerals as cobalt, nickel, antimony, platinum and rare earth elements. As a neutral, third-party group, it will be our job serve as an incubator, validator and concierge to the challenges on the path through the tech Death Valley. We’ll be working with state and private entities as well as interested community members to prioritize the critical minerals and materials, like acid main drainage or tailings, to focus on during the initiative. 

DARPA ReSource Project

Military troops produce a lot of trash. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded the ReSource project to Battelle and other organizations in 2020 to see what could be done with that enormous amount of waste. Since then, we’ve been genetically engineering microorganisms to turn waste products such as plastics and cardboard into products that would be useful for forward-deployed troops.

NSF Convergence Accelerator

End-of-life management for solar photovoltaics is becoming an issue as solar panel units installed 20 years ago are about to go offline. What do we do with all these old panels? The National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator is a program funding a Battelle-led “Securing Critical Material Supply Chains by Enabling PhOtovoltaic CircuLARity (SOLAR)”. The SOLAR program is creating and promoting tools to enable full circularity of materials in solar panels.to investigate sustainable innovations to improve the circularity of solar panels through e-waste recycling. Battelle scientists are figuring out how to take critical or near critical materials (specifically silicon as well as other trace metals) out of solar panels and upcycle them.  

DARPA EMBER Program

(EMBER) program in 2022, Battelle was one three teams to be selected. The four-year program is designed to develop novel, bio-based technologies for the separation, purification and conversion of REEs into manufacturing-ready forms. Battelle researchers are developing a mobile in-line processing system comprising modular bio-enabled unit operations to support a bioeconomy.

Battelle continues to actively seek programs and ideas that can benefit everyone by increasing boosting e-waste recycling, improving efficiency, creating sustainable innovations, reducing waste and regenerating the planet when it needs it most.