A world first
The particularity of microcomputers, also called embedded computers, developed by Citronics? They are “circular”that is to say made from motherboards recovered from old mobile phones.
“We collect smartphones in industrial quantities. We then extract the motherboard, which we reprogram before assembling it on another moduleexplains the founder of the start-up. Otherwise, these motherboards are destroyed. Here, they are reintegrated with other components to make microcomputers.” And that’s a world first.
The young business leader, an electronics engineer by training, does not hide a certain astonishment at being the first on the world market: “Why didn’t anyone think of doing this before, of reusing these components? I’ve been wondering from the start… Culturally, we don’t reuse components in the world of electronics. There is the belief that it costs too expensive. But since Covid, and with the blockage of the Suez Canal, pirates in the Red Sea, etc., supply is no longer guaranteed.”
This is one of Citronics’ great strengths: “The entire value chain is in Europe, from the development of prototypes to industrial production. There is therefore no risk in terms of supply.”
These embedded computers are used in a range of fields, from education and research to energy optimization. “We are already working with the Karno company, which specializes in heating networks. In the telecoms sector, we are starting a collaboration with Deutsche Telekom”announces Jean-Brieuc Feron.
A Brainois channel
It is at Village No. 1 (see box), the company based in Braine-le-Château which brings together nearly 800 disabled workers, that the Citronics extraction line is installed.
This Wednesday, four people were busy dismantling smartphones to recover the motherboard. Around 11 a.m., after 3 hours of work, 154 smartphones had already been dismantled, we read on the computer screen.
“There are three extraction stations: a “pre-check” to verify that the motherboard looks “alive”; the extraction itself and the separation of the materials, so that they can be sent to the recycling; inserting the motherboard into a test bench to ensure that it is working and has not been damagedlists the founder of Citronics. The extraction chain was designed and adapted for the workers of Village No. 1.”
A collaboration with Fairphone
“We don’t do this alone: the Fairphone company has supported us from the beginning, even when they didn’t completely understand what we were doingsays Jean-Brieuc Feron. It now provides us with thousands of old smartphones.”
The Dutch company’s smartphones also have a significant advantage: they can be dismantled much more easily than a Samsung or an iPhone. Citronics nevertheless plans to turn to other brands in the months or years to come to develop its activity and become “European leader in the promotion of smartphones, both environmentally and socially”.
