Dieter De Marelle

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About

Dieter De Marelle is a researcher at the forefront of sustainable materials engineering, specializing in the automated sorting and recycling of complex metal waste streams. His work directly addresses the European Green Deal’s ambition to close material loops, focusing on the critical challenge of recovering high-value wrought aluminium alloys from shredded scrap. De Marelle’s major contributions include pioneering a techno-economic assessment of robotic sorting for aluminium scrap, a study that has garnered 14 citations and provides a vital framework for evaluating the industrial viability of automated recycling. He further advanced the field by designing a novel high-airflow vertical conveying gripper for robotic sorting of shredded metal residues, a practical innovation that tackles the difficult task of handling heterogeneous, lightweight objects in a recycling facility. This work, cited 5 times, demonstrates his commitment to bridging the gap between theoretical models and real-world engineering solutions. By integrating robotics with materials science, De Marelle is laying the groundwork for a more circular economy, ensuring that critical metals are not lost to downcycling but are instead recovered for high-performance applications.