ECODECO

Surface treatments and coatings are widely used in many industrial sectors (energy, manufacturing, healthcare, aeronautics, etc.) due to the specific functionalities they can bring to materials, but also because of their ability to protect treated parts in their environment of use, thereby increasing their service life.

Belgium, and the EU more generally, is heavily dependent on imports of raw materials for its industry. The dependency rate for minerals ranges from 48% for copper ore and 78% for nickel to 100% for materials such as cobalt, platinum and titanium. One of the key elements identified for meeting the objectives of the European Green Deal is therefore to ‘mobilise industry for a clean and circular economy’.

Based on this observation, the ECODECO project aims to contribute to this by addressing the issue of the service life of technological materials, which relies on improving performance through surface treatments and coatings, coupled with an eco-design approach to the selection and manufacture of coatings.