Digital twin of refrigerating appliances recycling

Over 3 million used refrigerators from the private sector and food industry are disposed of in Germany every year. The gases that absorb heat in the refrigerator's cooling cycle according to the laws of thermodynamics have an enormous greenhouse potential and must not be released into the atmosphere under any circumstances. In addition, a refrigerator contains significant amounts of metals and plastics. Refrigerator recycling is therefore an important part of the circular economy.

How can we deal with the ever more diverse models of refrigerators that become WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment)? What are the right approaches for processing heterogeneous materials found in refrigerators? Since the refrigerator recycling process consists of multiple connected stages, it is essential to have transparency of the current machine status and the state of processed refrigerators in order to save energy and guarantee safe plant operation.

The new project DiKueRec aims at exactly that – increasing and utilising mentioned process transparency. Our partner RIF e.V. cooperates with recycling equipment suppliers, recycling companies and refrigerator manufacturers to apply current developments in IoT, digital twins and AI to manifest the vision of transparent, intelligent and sustainable refrigerator recycling. Read more about DiKueRec in the project presentation!

This research and development project (fund number: 033D016D) is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the Action Plan ”Natürlich.Digital.Nachhaltig” and managed by the Project Management Jülich (PTJ).

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Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)

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