Europe is the world’s 2nd largest steel producer with an approximate annual production of 166 million tons or 10% of global production. Around 42% of EU steel production is done using Electric Arc Furnaces and this produces Electric Arc Furnace Dust (EAFD). In fact, Europe produces about 1 million tons of EAFD per year which equates to 500,000 m3 of hazardous material being trucked, shipped and railed across Europe to recycling centers where Zinc is typically extracted and the remaining by-product landfilled. If loaded onto trucks, this quantity of dust would create a queue of trucks from Barcelona to Venice (60,000 trucks). There is a better way. Leveraging a Spanish patent, REWASTEE employs a process to stabilize and make inert the EAFD transforming it into a highly-dense membrane perfect for acoustic insulation. Taking it one step further, the project adds Phase Change Materials to create the world’s first acoustic membrane with thermal inertia properties. The membrane can be deployed alone, be coupled to other construction materials such as gypsum board or mineral wool or be used as an acoustic layer in complex wall or roofing systems. If we treated just 30% of Europe’s EAFD, this would produce 75 million m2 of our 2mm product which is just about enough to cover all of Paris – that’s one way to control the noise!

R2M serves as the Innovation Manager and leads the work package concerning exploitation and impact. In this capacity R2M has defined business models, conducted market analysis, conducted stakeholder interviews, formed exploitation agreements between the partners, established distribution and sales channels and developed a replication strategy for product launch in Spain and expansion into France and Italy. In the project, R2M has established important and great contacts with steel companies and EAFD recycling facilities.