From wastewater to strategic metals: Circular Materials pioneers EU-scale recovery under raw materials act

Circular Materials, an Italian technology innovator focused on sustainable metal recovery, has announced a major industrial milestone under the European Union’s Critical Raw Materials Act. The company successfully completed the industrial-scale recovery of one kilogram of ruthenium and one metric ton of nickel from industrial wastewater, using its proprietary Supercritical Water Precipitation (SWaP) process. This achievement represents the first confirmed recovery of its kind in Europe under the strategic raw materials framework, with far-reaching implications for green manufacturing, battery supply chains, and heavy industry decarbonization.

Circular Materials collaborated with surface treatment leaders LEM Industries Group, known for its work in the luxury metals sector, and Argos Surface Technologies Group, which specializes in industrial coatings. These partnerships helped bring the SWaP system from pilot to full-scale deployment.

This development follows the official recognition of Circular Materials’ Recover-IT initiative as a strategic project by the European Commission earlier in 2025, signaling EU-level backing for innovation-driven, circular industrial recovery programs.

How does Circular Materials’ industrial-scale recovery process reduce emissions from ruthenium and nickel extraction?

The SWaP process—short for Supercritical Water Precipitation—offers a radical rethinking of conventional metal extraction. Unlike traditional mining, which involves energy-intensive, emissions-heavy processes and toxic byproducts, Circular Materials’ solution captures dissolved metal particles from surface finishing wastewater streams, transforming them into pure, reusable form.

Circular Materials reported that for ruthenium, a rare platinum group metal, the SWaP method reduced greenhouse gas emissions by over 99.6% compared to standard extraction and refining methods. Even more notably, the recovery process for nickel was shown to be carbon negative. This means the method does not just reduce CO₂ but actively avoids the release of total emissions that would have been generated in conventional mining.

The positive environmental impact has been validated through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies commissioned by the company, positioning the SWaP process as not only industrially scalable but climate-beneficial.

Why are ruthenium and nickel critical for Europe’s sustainable energy and manufacturing future?

Ruthenium plays an indispensable role in advanced electronics, green hydrogen production, chemical synthesis, and fuel cell technologies, in addition to being used in premium luxury goods manufacturing. As a member of the platinum group, it is scarce and geopolitically concentrated, making it a high-risk dependency for Europe.

Nickel, meanwhile, is a cornerstone material in both high-performance stainless steel and lithium-ion batteries, particularly in cathode chemistry for electric vehicles. The material is currently subject to volatile pricing and supply chain disruptions, especially given the geopolitical dynamics of nickel-producing regions.

European industry’s decarbonization strategy, particularly in automotive and grid storage sectors, depends on stable access to nickel. By recovering it from industrial waste, Circular Materials is not only improving supply resilience but also extending the utility of previously discarded materials, in alignment with the EU’s circular economy action plan.

How does this breakthrough align with the European Commission’s Critical Raw Materials Act?

The Critical Raw Materials Act, adopted to reduce Europe’s strategic dependencies on external suppliers, specifically prioritizes domestic sourcing, recycling, and substitution of metals deemed essential for green and digital transitions. Circular Materials’ Recover-IT program, now officially designated a strategic project, plays a dual role: reducing environmental pollution and securing access to materials categorized as critical or strategic by the European Union.

The recent success in extracting both ruthenium and nickel supports several EU policy objectives simultaneously, including the Green Deal, Net Zero Industry Act, and broader industrial autonomy goals. By enabling metal recovery at industrial scale from otherwise non-valorized waste streams, the company is essentially converting liability into critical supply—a shift institutional stakeholders are watching closely.

What technologies does Circular Materials use to convert industrial wastewater into valuable metal resources?

Circular Materials’ SWaP technology utilizes supercritical water, which exists at high pressure and temperature, to precipitate dissolved metal ions out of wastewater streams. This process eliminates the need for complex, multi-step filtration or chemical precipitation stages, enabling a single-step treatment that both purifies the water and recovers high-purity metals.

Crucially, this method does not generate toxic sludge, a common byproduct in standard wastewater treatment. Instead, the extracted metals are reclaimed as usable feedstock, while the cleaned water can often be reintroduced into the industrial process, closing multiple resource loops.

In its collaborations with LEM Industries and Argos Surface Technologies Group, the Italian firm tailored the SWaP unit for luxury electroplating residues and industrial coating effluents, respectively—both of which are rich in heavy metal ions.

What is the institutional and investor sentiment around Circular Materials’ strategic direction?

Although privately held, Circular Materials has attracted growing attention from institutional investors, sustainability-focused funds, and public-sector grant mechanisms. Analysts watching Europe’s green tech sector view the firm as a first mover in a soon-to-be critical vertical: the urban mining of wastewater.

With increasing pressure on listed manufacturing and automotive firms to de-risk supply chains, technologies like SWaP are being evaluated as ESG-aligned, impact-ready investments. Industry observers expect significant future uptake in sectors such as battery production, green hydrogen, and precious metal recovery.

Strategically, the recognition by the European Commission not only de-risks regulatory pathways but also signals the firm’s eligibility for broader funding initiatives tied to strategic autonomy and circular infrastructure buildouts.

What are the future growth prospects for Circular Materials and its SWaP technology platform?

The successful pilot-to-scale transition of SWaP paves the way for expansion across additional metals, industrial verticals, and geographies. Circular Materials aims to adapt the technology for the recovery of other high-demand inputs such as cobalt, palladium, and rare earth elements, all of which are on the EU’s strategic material watchlist.

Geographically, the firm is positioning itself for deployment across EU member states with high industrial density—particularly Germany, France, and Poland—while also exploring licensing and joint venture models in Asia and North America, where wastewater treatment regulation and green manufacturing incentives are tightening.

The broader outlook suggests an evolving “waste-as-asset” model, where manufacturers partner directly with technology providers like Circular Materials to extract value from process byproducts. Analysts expect further partnerships and strategic co-investments in 2025 and beyond, especially as the EU’s Green Deal Industrial Plan accelerates.