Special Session: Artificial Intelligence for E-Waste Recycling and Critical Material Recovery in Circular Clean Energy Systems
The widespread adoption of clean energy technologies, such as solar panels and electric vehicles, addresses critical sustainability challenges but simultaneously generates a rapidly growing volume of end-of-life waste, including spent batteries, photovoltaic modules, electronic components, and critical manufacturing materials with significant reuse potential. This surge raises a pivotal question: how can these products be sustainably managed at the end of their lifecycle? This session brings together researchers in waste management, materials recovery, and clean energy, alongside engineers and artificial intelligence specialists, to address this challenge while advancing AI-enabled solutions and systems for e-waste management and recycling. A central objective is examining how AI can support the identification and sorting of complex waste streams, optimize recycling processes, and facilitate the recovery of high-value materials. Contributions may also address, but are not limited to, plastics recycling, the detection and removal of hazardous additives, and methodologies for assessing whether a given recovery process delivers measurable environmental and energy benefits. By establishing a stronger alignment between AI, agentic AI-powered systems engineering, and recycling best practices, the session aims to advance safer, more efficient material recovery for a circular clean energy economy while reducing the depletion of natural resources.
ICACER covers solar energy, future battery technologies, and energy storage, but the end-of-life challenges of these technologies cut across several of its regular topics. A dedicated session would bring together work that might otherwise be presented separately: AI methods, recycling technologies, hazardous substance management, and critical material recovery. The session’s distinctive focus is the application of AI to specific recovery decisions and processes, supported by evidence of material quality, safety, and environmental performance. This creates a focused discussion between researchers who develop digital tools and those who test and implement recycling methods.
Submission Methods: The manuscript should be submitted via the submission link (http://confsys.iconf.org/submission/icacer2027), or to icacer@zhconf.ac.cn before the submission deadline.
Related Topics for this Session （but not limited to）:
Short Biography of Organizers
Imane Belyamani is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Sciences and Sustainability at Zayed University and a researcher affiliated with the Symbio Living Lab for Human-Centric AI and Genuine Sustainability. Her research focuses on the design and development of biodegradable and environmentally responsible materials, with particular emphasis on polymer science, mechanical and chemical recycling, and sustainable materials innovation. Her work contributes to advancing climate action, resource efficiency, and environmentally responsible economic development through the development of sustainable material systems. Her research integrates environmental chemistry, materials science, and sustainability science to address challenges related to waste management, circular economy strategies, and sustainable production systems. Within the Symbio Living Lab, her work also examines the intersection of sustainability research and emerging digital technologies, including the role of AI in supporting environmentally responsible materials design, recycling processes, and waste management systems. She recently published the article Artificial intelligence in waste management systems: Applications, challenges, and prospects (Waste Management Bulletin, 2025, htps://doi.org/10.1016/j.wmb.2025.100269), which examines the opportunities and limitations of AI-driven approaches for improving efficiency and sustainability in waste management infrastructures.
Ahmed Seffah is a tenured professor of Human-Centric AI Systems Engineering and the founder of Zayed University's Symbio Living Lab for Human-Centric AI and Genuine Sustainability. Over a thirty-year career spanning academic leadership in Canada and Europe, including professorships and research chairs at Concordia University and Lappeenranta University of Technology, he has dedicated himself to ensuring that technological innovation serves human and planetary wellbeing rather than perpetuating extraction and consumption. Drawing on extensive humanitarian work with leading non-profit organizations in the implementation and deployment of sustainability-focused software systems, he challenges the dominant narrative that AI and green technology alone can deliver genuine sustainability. His research argues that lasting change requires transforming human mindsets and developing Human-Centric AI systems, not merely retrofiƫng existing ones with smarter algorithms, but actively engaging communities in the co-creation of a new generation of AI systems designed for meaningful human–AI interaction and collaboration. He organized various workshops at well-established conference including ACM-CHI, IFIP-Interact, as well as sessions at ISCRAM.