Track Resource and Waste Engineering

The world is using more and more resources, producing mountains of waste. Plastics are covering beautiful beaches, energy transition is causing a graveyard of batteries and natural resources are getting depleted rapidly. The track ‘Resource and Waste Engineering’ teaches you to develop engineering solutions to minimise the depletion of natural material resources and the impact of waste on human health and the environment. 

This track teaches you to assess the lifecycle of resources from their supply, use, re-use, recovery and recycling to the point where resources leave the cycle as residual resources (waste) and have to be disposed of in safe long-term sinks. The track also addresses the prevention, assessment and mitigation of the potential impact of all these steps on human health and the environment. 

The track highlights two themes of choice: one is focused on Waste Processing Technologies, where you gain further knowledge about the circularity of resources and the technologies to separate waste streams. The other is concentrated on reactive resources and wastes.

Key features

➨ Focus on the development of advanced technical knowledge and skills to understand material and waste flows.
➨ Learn to develop technologies for recycling, resource recovery, waste separation, characterisation and disposal.
➨ Assess circularity and measure resource efficiency.
➨ Develop measures for the mitigation of possible environmental impacts caused by the utilisation and disposal of waste.

Research examples

From concrete waste to concrete buildings

Earth’s primary resources are finite. Human inventiveness, however, isn’t. At TU Delft’s laboratories, Francesco Di Maio is working on the recycling of concrete waste. He hopes his technologies will help to transform urban economies into self-sustaining loops.

Recycling refined

In ten years’ time the methods used to recycle plastic and electronic waste will be completely transformed, predicts Peter Rem, professor of Resources & Recycling at TU Delft. The recycling plants of today will have been replaced by distribution centres for recovered raw materials which can be made into high-quality products.