4th WMC (2027)

The transition to a sustainable and carbon-neutral society requires not only clean energy technologies but also efficient use and recycling of materials. As renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, and digital technologies continue to expand, the demand for critical raw materials is increasing rapidly, together with growing volumes of end-of-life plastics, biomass, electronic waste, batteries, photovoltaic modules, wind turbine blades, and other energy-related materials. Developing efficient strategies to recover and reuse these valuable resources is becoming one of the major challenges in materials science and engineering.

This symposium will bring together researchers from academia and industry to discuss recent advances in circular materials, resource recovery, and sustainable recycling technologies. The symposium will cover both fundamental studies and practical developments in materials design, recycling processes, waste valorization, and the conversion of waste into high-value chemicals, fuels, hydrogen, carbon materials, and functional materials. Contributions on emerging recycling technologies, including thermochemical, electrochemical, catalytic, plasma-assisted, and hybrid processes, as well as life-cycle assessment, techno-economic analysis, and digital approaches for circular materials, are particularly welcome.

By bringing together experts from diverse disciplines, the symposium aims to promote new ideas and collaborations that advance sustainable materials management, strengthen resource security, and support the development of a circular economy for future energy and materials systems.

Symposium Topics

1. Sustainable Materials Design and Development

2. Materials for Clean Energy and Decarbonization

3. Circular Materials and Resource Efficiency

4. Circular Manufacturing, Reuse and Remanufacturing

5. Plastic Recycling and Polymer Upcycling

6. Biomass Valorization and Biorefineries

7. Electronic Waste Recycling and Resource Recovery

8. Renewable Energy Materials and Waste Recycling

9. Battery Recycling and Critical Materials Recovery

10. Waste-to-Materials and Waste-to-Energy Technologies

11. Advanced Catalytic, Electrochemical, Plasma-Assisted and Hybrid Processes

12. Waste-Derived Functional and Advanced Materials

13. AI, Digitalization and Data-Driven Sustainable Materials

14. Life-Cycle Assessment, Techno-Economic Analysis and Sustainability

Symposium Organizers

	Name	Institution	E-mail
Chair	Guoxing Chen	National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy, Beijing, China	guoxing.chen.a@chnenergy.com.cn
Co-chairs	Anke Weidenkaff	Technical University of Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany	anke.weidenkaff@mr.tu-darmstadt.de
	Charles Chunbao XU	Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China	chunbao-charles.xu@polyu.edu.hk
	Yongli Li	North China Electric Power University, Beijing, China	yongli.li@ncepu.edu.cn
	Yang Hou	Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China	yhou@zju.edu.cn
	Ying Zhou	Chengdu University, Chengdu, China	yzhou@swpu.edu.cn

Organized by

National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy, North China Electric Power University, Chengdu University, Zhejing University, Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Technical University of Darmstadt.

Supported by

Clean Energy etc. ( TBD)

Contact with

Name: Ranfang Zuo

Phone: +86-15600609374

Email: 20029700@ceic.com

Institution: National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy, Beijing, China

Name: Detao Wu

Phone: +86-13811994952

Email: 20035833@ceic.com

Institution: National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy, Beijing, China