Especially during the last decade the demand for portable power is steadily rising due to the increasing wireless products integrated in our day-to-day lives (cellular phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) and of course the remote control for your television set or VCR). These portable consumer electronics are mainly powered by alkaline batteries, and nowadays more and more by rechargeables. Alternative power sources, like fuel cells and photovoltaic cells, can be used in portable consumer electronics, possibly making them more cost-effective, more environmentally and user friendly. For the consumer industry the opportunities of these other alternative power-sources is unknown, and designers are not known with the state-of-the-art of the technology. Opportunities for short-term but especially long-term developments in portable electronics are in that way overlooked. In this paper the most interesting power-sources available will be compared on the basis of power and energy characteristics, and costs. Emerging power sources like fuel cells are a very interesting alternative for the lithium-ion battery, but the road ahead for it is still long when we look at state-of-the-art developments. Other power sources described and compared are: ether-smog, human power, thermo-electric generators, piëzo generators, electro-mechanical devices, photovoltaic cells, micro fuel-cells and micro combustion-engines.

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Composite materials are an attractive material choice as they enable lightweight, low-maintenance products with a long lifespan. Recycling these materials, however, remains a challenge. Homogeneous material composition and the use of thermoset matrices complicate reprocessing, and result in low-grade recyclate. This means that closing the loop for these materials in a circular economy remains challenging, especially for glass fibre-reinforced thermoset composites. For a circular economy, products need to be designed to preserve product functionality, material properties, and economic value for as long as possible. However, recovery strategies, design aspects and their interconnectedness are currently largely unexplored for products containing fibre-reinforced polymers. The aim of this study was to identify circular strategies and determine design aspects for products containing composites. To achieve this, we conducted a systematic literature review and consulted experts. The circular strategies are largely similar to generic circular economy strategies as far as product integrity is concerned. However, on a material level, we identified additional approaches, the most notable of which is structural reuse, which preserves the material quality and thereby value. The design aspects were clustered and positioned along the product design process to support implementation. Finally, the strategies and design aspects we identified were brought together in a framework to support product design and design research for products containing composite materials in the context of a circular economy.

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