90th ICREA BREAKFAST COLLOQUIUM – Please dispose after use: Designing sustainable single-use sensing devices in a circular economy

ABSTRACT

Speakers: ICREA Research Professor Neus Sabaté & Dr. Juan Pablo Esquivel, CSIC Tenured Scientist (both from Institut de Microelectrònica de Barcelona – CSIC)

When: 21^st of January 2020, 9:00h

Where: Hotel Catalonia Plaza Catalunya, Bergara, 11, 08002 Barcelona

Abstract:

Since the beginning of our century, we have got used to throwing away our electronic devices and replace them with much modern and updated versions every couple of years. This has a tremendous environmental impact that is often disregarded. One of the components that is incorrectly discarded is also one the most hazardous: the battery. The most alarming factor is that batteries use and consumption is expected to rise significantly in the following years due to the growth of small-sized portable appliances in the internet-of-things scenario.

In view of this perspective, tightened environmental laws and increased provisions for recycling infrastructures (primary battery collection and processing) are urgently needed. However, this scenario is not conducive in the short-term in developing economies due to the high cost and complexity of implementation. Indeed, this may not be environmentally sustainable even for developed economies either; building-up costly and energy-consuming recycling plants to take care of the batteries generated along the linear “take-make-dispose” path followed traditionally since the early days of industrialization entails a huge waste of natural resources, energy and labour. In this sense, the re-thinking of energy sources together with the electronic components that will be powered in a way that fits into a circular economy appears to be a promising path to meet the technological needs of current society without compromising future generations.

The talk will address the solutions proposed by Sabate and Esquivel to supply sustainable energy to small-sized electronic products and to develop digital sensing devices with minimal electronic content as an example of the new generation of sustainable devices to come.

The ICREA colloquia are a great way to learn about remote fields of research from our best experts. We usually have two speakers, who offer their opinions on the same subject from very different angles. They are open to all ICREAs and their guests.