Chiharu Tokoro

Waseda University, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Advancing Particle Technology for Circular Economy: Smart Liberation and Separation for Inner Loops

Achieving a circular economy requires the advancement and integration of particle technology to enable not only robust element-level recycling and appropriate end-of-life treatment, but also inner loops that maintain the circulation of materials with their original functionality, such as direct reuse, remanufacturing, and high-quality recycling.
This presentation highlights recent advances in smart liberation and separation strategies and introduces approaches for designing products for easier disassembly, which are essential for sustainable resource recycling. We demonstrate that, rather than relying only on conventional comminution or manual disassembly, external stimuli-driven processes, such as electrical pulsed discharge and microwave-assisted treatments, induce localized selective heating, which promotes interfacial weakening, delamination, and controlled disassembly. These approaches enable the high-purity recovery of valuable materials from complex multi-material products such as lithium-ion batteries, photovoltaic modules, and carbon fiber composites.
In addition, we present how powder processing methodologies contribute to product design for easier disassembly. For example, controlling the dispersion and aggregation of conductive nanoparticles or fibers within adhesives can create bonding layers that respond effectively to external stimuli, such as electrical pulsed discharges. This requires precise interfacial engineering between functional particles and polymer matrices, underscoring the critical role of particle technology in developing sustainable design strategies for these materials.

Heru Setyawan

Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember, Indonesia

Particle technology in the formulation and fabrication of electrochemical energy conversion and storage system

Electrochemical energy storage system is a sustainable and clean technology that meets the increasing energy requirements and carbon neutralization. Particle technology, through the manipulation of materials, offers significant role in enhancing the performance of electrochemical energy system such as batteries, fuel cells, hydrogen production via electrochemically water splitting and CO2-electroreduction. This talk discusses the state of the art of the formulation and fabrication of electrodes for such system with special focus on the role of particle technology in enhancing the performance of the electrochemical energy conversion and storage system.

Qiang Zhang

Tsinghua University, China

Lithium bonds, analogous to hydrogen bonds, exhibit unique properties due to lithium’s weak metallic nature, offering exciting potential for lithium battery applications. This talk will delve into the concept of lithium bonds, exploring their underlying chemistry and how they can be harnessed to design new battery material combing with emerging artificial intelligence and further improve battery performances. Specifically, solid electrolytes combined with high-voltage Li-rich Mn-based cathodes and anode-free cell designs hold significant promise for high-energy-density and high-safety systems. However, challenges such as interfacial oxygen escape and unstable anode morphology continue to hinder their widespread applications. To address these issues, we have developed a fluoropolyether-based solid polymer electrolyte featuring a novel anion-rich solvation structure, which stabilizes the interface and enhances cycling stability. The resulting pouch cell demonstrates an ultra-high energy density (>600 Wh/kg) and excellent safety under a nail penetration at a full charge condition, advancing solid-state battery technology and paving the way for safer, higher-energy systems.

Carsten Schilde

Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany

Expanding Frontiers in Particle Technology — From Classical Models to Mixture of Experts —

The modelling of particle-based processes has its origins in mechanistic, physics-based approaches. Methods such as population balance models, the discrete element method, and continuum approaches like computational fluid dynamics have enabled the quantitative description of complex phenomena in particle technology. While these methods provide profound physical insights, their predictive power decreases with increasing process complexity and heterogeneity, and large-scale simulations remain computationally demanding. Consequently, data-driven methods and narrow AI have been introduced, often in the form of surrogate models, parameter-based optimisations or predictive tools. However, such approaches are typically application-specific and have limited transferability. The advent of transformer architectures and large language models marks a new stage. Originally developed for language processing, these systems can integrate numerical data, images and simulation outputs. This makes them a universal interface between knowledge, data and physical models. When trained at scale, they demonstrate emergent abilities in reasoning, contextual understanding and autonomous action. This talk contextualises these developments within the broader history of modelling in particle technology, introduces the principles of transformer models, and emphasises their potential through fine-tuning, retrieval-augmented generation, mixture-of-experts frameworks, and autonomous agents. Together, these advances suggest a transformative shift towards adaptive, scalable AI systems in particle technology.

Poupak Mehrani

University of Ottawa, Canada

Powders Electrostatic Charging: Its Dual Role as a Challenge and a Tool

Powder contact charging, also known as triboelectric charging, occurs when particulate materials acquire electrostatic charge through surface contact. This phenomenon has been observed for centuries across various solids handling and processing systems. The fundamental mechanisms underlying contact charging remain a topic of debate, with electron transfer, ion transfer, or material transfer all being proposed. Over the past few decades, controlled experiments have been conducted worldwide to probe these mechanisms. Regardless of the specific mechanisms, triboelectric effects have shown persistent and sometimes problematic implications in industrial settings, ranging from solids transportations via pneumatic conveying to solids processing in gas-solid fluidized beds, where powder fouling results in operational challenges. Such effects are also of concern in environments such as pharmaceutical manufacturing and outer space explorations, such as dust accumulation in space missions. Conversely, controlled utilization of powder charging has led to valuable applications, including surface coating, gas cleaning via electrostatic precipitators, solids separation, and many more. Research continues to refine both the theoretical understanding and practical application and implications of powder charging. This talk focuses on presenting experimental works in advancing the fundamental knowledge of powder charging via single particle contact charging, as well as powder charging’s dual role as a challenge, such as powder depositions in gas-solid fluidized beds, and a tool, such as material separation for electrical vehicle battery recycling, as well as exploring its growing relevance across scientific and industrial domains.

Jin Ooi

University of Edinburgh, UK