COMET TRAITEMENTS SA

Their core work

COMET Traitements is a Belgian SME specializing in industrial-scale recycling and recovery of critical and precious metals from end-of-life products. Their core business involves advanced metallurgical processing — including pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and electrochemistry — to extract valuable materials from waste streams such as spent batteries, automotive catalysts, WEEE, and photovoltaic panels. They also contribute expertise in polymer recycling (PMMA depolymerization) and have recently expanded into smart materials and structural health monitoring for transport applications.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

COMET Traitements entered H2020 in 2018 with a clear focus on recycling chemistry — recovering cobalt from batteries (CROCODILE) and monomers from plastic waste (MMAtwo), both grounded in their metallurgical and thermal processing capabilities. From 2021 onward, they expanded in two directions: upstream into precious metals and PGM recovery from complex waste streams (PEACOC), and laterally into smart composite structures for transport (MORPHO). The core recycling expertise remains, but their portfolio now signals ambition beyond metals processing into circular economy lifecycle management.

COMET is moving from single-material recycling toward full lifecycle recovery across complex multi-material waste streams, positioning itself as a circular economy processing partner for automotive and electronics sectors.

How they like to work

COMET Traitements operates exclusively as a consortium participant, contributing specialized industrial processing capabilities rather than leading project coordination. With 84 unique partners across 15 countries from just 5 projects, they join large, diverse consortia — typical of Innovation Actions where industrial SMEs provide pilot-scale validation. This pattern suggests they are sought after for their processing infrastructure and metallurgical know-how rather than building their own research agenda.

Broad European network of 84 partners across 15 countries, built through participation in large Innovation Action consortia. Their partnerships span research institutes, large industrials, and fellow SMEs across the circular economy and advanced materials value chains.

What sets them apart

COMET Traitements brings something rare to EU consortia: operational metallurgical processing capacity combined with willingness to pilot new recovery routes at near-commercial scale. While many recycling SMEs focus on a single material or technique, COMET spans pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, solvometallurgy, ionometallurgy, and electrochemistry — making them a versatile partner for any project that needs to demonstrate real metal recovery from complex waste. Their location in Wallonia (Belgium's industrial heartland) and their Innovation Action track record (4 out of 5 projects) confirm they operate at the demonstration end of the R&D spectrum, not just the lab bench.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CROCODILE
  Largest single grant (EUR 714K) targeting first-of-a-kind commercial cobalt recovery system — their flagship recycling project.
• PEACOC
  Extends their recovery expertise to precious and platinum-group metals from diverse waste streams including photovoltaic panels and automotive catalysts.
• MORPHO
  Unexpected diversification into smart multi-material structures for transport — signals capability beyond traditional recycling.