​CategoriesCategoriesEnglishGENERAL, INNOVATIONBelgian start-up launches "world's first circular microcomputer"27 November 2024 Belgian start-up Citronics has launched a microcomputer made from old smartphones The device can be used in smart home applications or as a tool for researchers The company is collaborating with Dutch company Fairphone an estimated 200 million smartphones end up in waste although their components - which are difficult to recycle and highly polluting - are often still perfectly usable "These are powerful chips that we at Citronics want to give a second life," says founder Jean-Brieuc Feron is collaborating with Dutch company Fairphone which produces smartphones where users can easily replace components themselves old smartphones are collected and dismantled after which Citronics turns them into new microcomputers The company already makes customised microcomputers but is now also launching an off-the-shelf version in smart home applications to monitor energy consumption Students are also already using the microcomputer in an image recognition system "In a world with infinite resources and cheap energy this would not make sense," says Feron the blockade of a ship in the Suez Canal and piracy in the Red Sea we realise that our economic resilience relies on less dependence on strategic components such as electronics." The microcomputer is currently in a launch phase Citronics is already working with partners such as UCLouvain and Deutsche Telekom and is preparing for a capital round in 2025 to support further growth Copy linkGet updates in your mailboxYour email addressSubscribeBy clicking "Subscribe" I confirm I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy rapid and high-quality information 24 hours a day from Belgium and abroad to all Belgian media not to mention entertainment and lifestyle our journalists and press photographers produce hundreds of photos and news stories Since the end of March 2022 English has been added as a language businesses and various organisations that need reliable information Belga News Agency also offers a comprehensive range of corporate services to meet all their communication needs www.belganewsagency.eu the debt-laden waste management group that has contracts with numerous local councils The Guardian understands that the group's private equity owners have received a bid from a consortium of Chinook Urban Mining, the London-based recycling specialist, private equity investor Clearbrook Capital and US bank JP Morgan Biffa is under pressure to pay back £1.1bn of loans and has contracts with local authorities including Portsmouth city council East Hampshire district and Winchester city council The offer was submitted last week to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) the advisers to the 76 banks and financial institutions that lent funds to Biffa's current owners Montagu Private Equity and Global Infrastructure Partners The fate of Britain's second largest waste management group once again raises the role of private equity funds acquiring assets by buying the loans of troubled companies at a discount and burdening them with debt Other distressed debt funds are also understood to be circling Biffa but are not yet thought to have submitted a bid Biffa has been struggling with its debts since the private equity firms acquired the company for £1.2bn in 2008 and its owners have written off their investment in the company The Chinook-Clearbrook-JP Morgan consortium is understood to believe that they can restore Biffa to profitability by implementing a renewable energy plan that will convert waste into energy or the lending banks would comment when contacted by the Guardian although the bid is understood to have been presented by PwC last Friday at a meeting with Biffa's senior management and the lenders to discuss its debt refinancing strategy The lenders have formed a steering committee comprising HSBC Dexia and Prudential M&G to consider the approach Biffa is not facing an imminent liquidity crisis but its performance has been under pressure on several fronts notably government changes to landfill tax recycling and disposal services across the municipal and commercial sectors which was a public company as recently as 2008 was founded 100 years ago by the Biffa family as a haulage business largely dedicated to the collection of ashes dust and clinker from coal-fired power stations in the London area but the business has developed over the past century and in the 1960s moved into the industrial waste market the group made a pre-tax loss of £127.5m on revenues of £775.1m "This is a serious offer and the only firm bid on the table but some of the bankers appear to be blocking it and it is difficult to get a consensus among so many banks," said a source close to the negotiations A source close to Montagu insisted that the bid was being considered Nearly two weeks after the announcement of the tragic disappearance of the singer Kizito Mihigo officially following a “suicide” in which no one believes emotion and indignation remain strong within the Rwandan but also in the four corners of the world where foreign media continue to devote headlines to the apostle of Rwandan reconciliation.  After tributes paid in Kigali, Brussels and Denver on Saturday new unprecedented mobilizations are planned by Rwandan exiles scattered all over the world sisters and friends of the Christian community in Belgium that Kizito Mihigo once frequented are organizing a day of homage that will begin with the projection of the singer’s songs at the Place des Martyrs in Braine-le-Château and will be followed by a mass and a moment of conviviality.  a ceremony “in memory of Kizito Mihigo” is planned in Sierre in the Valais and will start at 2 pm at the Holy Cross Church located at Avenue de France 4 The ceremony will be followed by a moment of exchange the “friends and brothers” of Kizito Mihigo are organizing a mass in memory of the singer in Ottawa-Gatineau at St Elizabeth Parish located at 1303 Leaside Avenue Ottawa (K1Z7R2) on March 1 another ceremony is planned in the province of Manitoba in the city of Winnipeg at 200 Kenny Street on March 1 In the United States “the Rwandan community of Buffalo” is organizing a mass “in memory of Kizito Mihigo and peace and reconciliation activist” at St Anthony of Padua Church located 169 Court Street Buffalo 14202 A second ceremony is also announced in Detroit a ceremony is planned by the Rwandan Association of Queensland on March 14 2020 at 1 pm at St Stephen’s Cathedral located at 49 Elizabeth Street JambonewsEnvie de proposer un article pour publication sur jambonews.net? Plus d’infos ici