In, Ga, Ge, Sb & As
semiconductor raw material
production from European resources.
InGaGe recovers and refines five strategic semiconductor materials — Indium, Gallium, Germanium, Antimony and Arsenic — directly from European industrial and end-of-life waste streams. From bauxite residue to wafer, the loop closes inside Europe.
About the project.
Semiconductors power the green and digital transition — but Europe depends almost entirely on imports of the strategic metals that make them possible. InGaGe closes that gap.
The project develops and demonstrates integrated processes for the recovery of Gallium from bauxite residue and crude-Ga production waste, Indium from zinc-smelting alloys, Germanium from optical cables and LEDs, Antimony from copper processing residues, and Arsenic from GaAs wafer waste and legacy metallurgical dust.
Beyond extraction, InGaGe innovates the downstream value chain itself: a novel plasma refining method delivers ultra-pure gallium, while a scaled HTVPE reactor produces 2-inch GaN wafers from recovered metal. Recovered indium and gallium are validated in industrial InP and GaAs wafer production at Freiberger Compound Materials — closing the loop from waste back to wafer.
The result is a sovereign, sustainable, cost-competitive European semiconductor value chain — aligned with the Critical Raw Materials Act and the European Green Deal.
The Technology: From industrial waste to semiconductor-grade materials
Five elements, five recovery routes.
All routes targeting TRL 6 – 7Gallium
Recovered through a holistic valorisation flowsheet that also yields pig iron, alumina hydrate and recycled soda — turning Europe's most-landfilled industrial by-product into a strategic raw material.
Germanium
Mechanical separation of Ge-rich glass fibres, followed by pressure leaching and ion-exchange recovery — unlocking germanium from a waste stream that today is irrecoverably lost in shredding.
Indium
A three-stage route — drossing concentration, hydrometallurgical extraction, electro-refining — produces 4N indium ready for InP wafer manufacturing. A parallel patent-pending process recycles InP production waste safely.
Antimony
Acidic leaching, selective Sb₂O₃·2SbOCl precipitation and chloride removal yield semiconductor-grade Sb₂O₃, with parallel bismuth recovery as a co-product — making the route economically robust.
Arsenic
A novel deep-eutectic-solvent electrowinning route safely converts arsenic-bearing hazardous waste into 99% pure As₂O₃, fed back into GaAs wafer production — transforming a chronic liability into a strategic feedstock.
A sovereign European chip industry.
InGaGe's first technology rollout — using only the volumes already available within the consortium — would dramatically reduce Europe's dependence on imported semiconductor raw materials.
From bauxite residue and crude-Ga waste at METLEN's Greek alumina refinery.
From optical cables and LEDs collected through EMR's European recycling network.
From multi-metal alloys already produced at HYDROMETAL's Belgian recycling plant.
From copper-processing by-products co-recovered with bismuth as a value-added side stream.
From GaAs wafer recycling waste — closing a hazardous-waste loop within the EU.
Scientific
New knowledge in hydrometallurgy, plasma refining and green wafer manufacturing — published open-access.
Economic
20 – 30% lower production costs, three industrial business cases with strong ROI, and at least five exploitable results ready for scaling.
Societal
Reduced emissions, fewer mining liabilities, secured European supply, and stronger public trust through transparency and circularity.
The Consortium
Fourteen partners across six countries — bringing together raw-material producers, recyclers, metallurgical research centres, plasma physicists and the world's largest monocrystalline GaAs wafer manufacturer.
News & Updates
Stay tuned!
Resources
Public materials produced by the consortium. As the project develops, this section will host open-access deliverables, scientific publications, project posters and policy briefs.
Contact
For collaboration opportunities, press enquiries, or to follow the project's progress — reach out to our coordinator or to the dissemination team. We're always happy to hear from industry, academia, policy makers and the public.
efthymios.balomenos-external@metlen.com
cunaj@senc.gr