Penn State Research-based Startup Tackles E-Waste Recycling Challenges

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Electronics like cell phones, laptops, tablets, home appliances and office electronic equipment often end up in landfills at the end of their lifecycle. According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), electronic waste, or e-waste, is the fastest-growing waste stream globally and expected to more than double by 2050, exacerbating pollution and contamination issues tied to landfill disposal. 

E-waste contains valuable materials including but not limited to copper, gold, silver, aluminum and lithium, which are critical materials essential to clean energy technologies, making it a significant resource that can be recovered and reused to support the U.S. transition to a low-carbon economy. Unfortunately, when e-waste is not recycled and ends up in landfills, it not only poses environmental hazards but also leads to the loss of these critical and valuable resources that were initially extracted and refined through energy-intensive processes. To tackle the challenges associated with landfilling, it is essential to develop and incorporate more efficient and sustainable recycling solutions that can effectively recover these valuable materials. 

To address these challenges, Penn State Associate Professor of Energy and Mineral Engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences Mohammad Rezaee and his team founded Intel-E-Waste, a startup offering a sustainable e-waste recycling process. 

“Through a funded project by the Remade Institute, we developed a low-cost, chemical-free, and zero-waste process to selectively separate multiple critical materials from e-waste,” said Rezaee, co-founder of Intel-E-Waste. “This patented turnkey solution could be adapted to existing recycling facilities by complementing existing processes and also could be utilized at collection facilities that currently don’t perform material recovery.” 

The technology efficiently separates e-waste components by exploiting differences in material properties, obtaining high-purity critical and valuable materials. 

Drawing on his expertise in mineral processing and extractive metallurgy, Rezaee highlighted how the same principles can be effectively applied to recycling e-waste.  

“Because of my passion for sustainable resource extraction and circular economy, I saw an exciting opportunity to take this patented process from the lab to commercial scale. I’m thrilled about the positive environmental impacts of this project.”  

Intel-E-Waste’s journey began with support from Penn State’s Office of Technology Transfer, which connected the team to the Office of Entrepreneurship & Commercialization. Through participation in the Invent Penn State NSF I-Corps regional short course, the team gained insights into bringing their technology to market. 

“Understanding what the e-waste recycling ecosystem looks like, as well as who the key players, decision-makers, and end users are, were major learnings from the short course,” Rezaee said. “We had the opportunity to engage with some of those key players, and our team was very excited by how much we learned about the e-waste recycling ecosystem through these interactions.” 

The team, which also includes Larry Dittman, a Mentor in Residence with Invent Penn State’s Startup Leadership Network, was further accepted into the 2024 NSF I-Corps National Teams program. Through this program, Intel-E-Waste received grant funding to conduct comprehensive customer discovery and develop its business model canvas. As part of the National Teams program, Intel-E-Waste visited recycling facilities and attended major industry conferences, deepening their understanding of the e-waste recycling ecosystem. 

“Before starting the NSF I-Corps program, we thought that the key for launching a successful startup was having a groundbreaking technology, and the technology alone would attract customers,” Rezaee said. “But we quickly learned about the importance of product-market fit and got out of the building to talk to the key players in the ecosystem and learn more about their current pains and day-to-day challenges.” 

In addition to I-Corps support, Intel-E-Waste has benefited from the Penn State Law Entrepreneur Assistance Clinic, which helped the team officially form the company and handle legal documentation. 

“Coming from a scientific background, I had limited experience with commercialization. These programs have guided our team step by step throughout the commercialization process,” Rezaee said. 

Intel-E-Waste is currently focused on building partnerships with recycling enterprises to further develop and demonstrate its recycling process. The team strongly recommends the Invent Penn State NSF I-Corps program to Penn State researchers aiming for commercialization.

Courtesy: www.psu.edu