Argentinean copper concentrates: structural aspects and thermal behaviour

In Argentina, there are many sources of copper concentrates. Some of them are currently in operation, while others are in the exploration stage. All copper concentrates produced are exported to other countries for copper refinement and to create various finished products. It is desirable that in the near future, these copper concentrates be processed in an Argentinean industrial plant. The aim of this paper was to present the results of a characterisation study carried out on five different copper concentrate samples. The thermal decomposition of the copper concentrates was determined by differential thermal analysis and thermogravimetry (DTA TG). The information was correlated with the chemical composition and the mineralogical phases of the samples identified by X-ray diffraction. A melting test at temperatures of up to 1300˚C was performed to complete the study of the concentrate’s behaviour during heating. After the test, all of the samples were observed by light and electronic scanning microscopy to identify the different phases generated under high-temperature conditions.Fil: Bazan Brizuela, Vanesa Lucia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Juan; ArgentinaFil: Brandaleze, Elena. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional San Nicolás. Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico de Materiales; ArgentinaFil: Santini, Leandro Matias. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional San Nicolás. Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico de Materiales; ArgentinaFil: Sarquis, Pedro Edgardo. Universidad Nacional de San Juan; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Material Flow Analysis of Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling in Europe: Environmental and Economic Implications

This study aimed at a quantitative analysis of the material flows associated with End of Life (EoL) lithium-ion batteries’ (LIBs) materials in Europe. The European electric vehicles fleet in 2020 was taken as a case study, assuming a 10-year lifetime for the batteries and that the related EoL LIBs would be processed by existing recycling plants via pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, or their combination in sequence. The economic implications (recycling operative costs compared to the revenues from the sales of the recycled metals) and the environmental performances (CO2 eq. emitted, energy demand and circularity performances) were assessed. Based on the gathered results, the existing European recycling capacity will overlook over 78% of the forecasted EoL LIBs. The treatment efficiencies of the full-scale recycling processes allow for the recovery of over 90% of copper, cobalt, nickel, and manganese, 87% of aluminum, and only 42% of lithium and 35% of iron entering the recycling facilities. In overall, LIBs recycling in 2030 will involve the emission of 3.7 Mt of CO2 eq. and an energy demand of 33.6 GWh. Hydrometallurgy presents the best economic and environmental trade-off compared to other recycling strategies. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that current European LIBs’ recycling infrastructure will be inadequate in the near future and the direction (i.e., hydrometallurgy) that its strengthening should pursue

Literature Review: Comparison of Caron Process and RKEF On The Processing of Nickel Laterite Ore For Battery

Indonesia has abundant resources, especially in natural resources (SDA), one of which is nickel. Nickel is a metal that is loved by many people because of the rapid development of technology in creating electric transportation, in particular, the application of nickel is one of the batteries. Nickel resources in the world are available in the form of Nickel Oxide as much as 60% and the remaining 40% is available in the form of sulfide reserves. Currently, there are 2 extraction methods, namely hydrometallurgy (Caron Process) and pyrometallurgy (Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace). Hydrometallurgy is a process used for nickel ore that has a grade of < 1.5%, while pyrometallurgy is still used for nickel ore that has a Ni content of < 3%. At present, the most common hydrometallurgical process is applied to limonite nickel ore. While the extraction process in pyrometallurgy uses saprolite nickel ore. Nickel metal processing, currently the best and the cheapest in terms of production costs is the hydrometallurgical process followed by the pyrometallurgical process. Using low-grade nickel is more suitable for manufacturing battery manufacture. The reason is that the Limonite Nickel reserves are more and can increase the selling value of the nickel ore. Thus, it is necessary to pay attention to the development in the processing process to increase the purity of the nickel-metal itself

The application of deep eutectic solvent ionic liquids for environmentally-friendly dissolution and recovery of precious metals

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: The application of deep eutectic solvent ionic liquids for environmentally-friendly dissolution and recovery of precious metals journaltitle: Minerals Engineering articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mineng.2015.09.026 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Advances in Pyrometallurgy

There are several major megatrends having an impact on pyrometallurgical metal processing. The steadily growing demand for all metals is strengthened by the emergence of electrical vehicles (EV), which brings a high need for battery metals, but additionally, a significant increase in copper consumption. Even if only moderate forecasts for the number of the EVs become true, production of the base metals must increase by tens of percentages, or even more than double. At the same time, pyrometallurgical processes have to produce fewer side products, such as slag, and maintain the quality level of the primary product, although raw material mixtures are increasingly complex and new elements are entering the processes in secondary raw materials. Therefore, it is imperative to continue the development of pyrometallurgical processes more efficiently and productively, while still improving their selectivity regarding slagging the unwanted material and recovering the desired elements. This Special Issue is for current advances in the pyrometallurgical processing of metals, including all aspects, namely, the basic unit processes and operations in a smelter, metallurgical engineering, furnace integrity, cooling systems, modelling, slag and offgas handling, to name a few. A collection of 13 papers deal with ferrous and ferroalloy development, and the processing of different raw materials for metal production

Pengolahan Nikel Laterit secara Pirometalurgi: Kini dan Penelitian Kedepan

Cadangan nikel saat ini 70% adalah jenis laterit dan sisanya sulfida, dan dengan penurunan cadangan sumber nikel sulfida maka praktis pengembangan diarahkan ke pemanfaatan nikel laterite sebagai sumber nikel. Terdapat tiga pilihan proses pirometalurgi nikel laterite komersial saat ini yaitu pengolahan menjadi feronikel jenis shot/ingot dan feronikel luppen, pengolahan nikel matte dan pengolahan menjadi nickel pig iron (NPI).Produksi ferronikel dari bijih laterit secara pirometalurgi memerlukan energi lebih tinggi dibanding hidrometalurgi, karena pada prakteknya bijih laterit atau bijih pra-reduksi langsung dilebur untuk menghasilkan sejumlah kecil produk feronikel dan sejumlah besar slag. Untuk bijih laterit kandungan nikel minimum yang menguntungkan untuk diolah secara pirometalurgi adalah 1,8%, padahal lebih dari 50% cadangan nikel laterit mempunyai kandungan < 1,45%. Pertimbangan utama dalam pirometalurgi adalah kebutuhan energi dan kualitas bijih. Dari tiga proses utama pengolahan nikel secara pirometalurgi, proses yang mempunyai efisiensi energi paling tinggi yaitu direct reduction dalam proses luppen. Permasalahan pada pembuatan feronikel luppen penggunaan antrasit, kontrol moisture yang harus sensitif dan sangat tergantung asal bahan baku diperoleh. Permasalahan pada proses NPI yaitu dari harga produknya sendiri yang sangat sensitif, sedangkan pada pembuatan nikel-matte dan feronikel shot/ingot mempunyai masalah utama dalam tingginya kebutuhan energi.Dengan permasalahan tersebut diatas tantangan penelitian kedepan dalam bidang pengolahan pirometalurgi nikel yaitu peningkatan kadar nikel dalam bijih awal, untuk memenuhi aspek ekonomi, penurunan temperatur reduksi tetapi pemisahan produk masih bisa dilakukan, substitusi reduktor dengan low-grade coal, peningkatan efisiensi electric furnace pada proses NPI

Unique intermetallic compounds prepared by shock wave synthesis

Technique compresses fine ground metallic powder mixture beyond crystal fusion point. Absence of vapor pressure voids and elimination of incongruous effects permit application of technique to large scale fabrication of intermetallic compounds with specific characteristics, e.g., semiconduction, superconduction, or magnetic properties

A review of metal recovery from E-waste using current microbial technologies

With the increasing demand for metals in many industries, there is a growing need for improved methods of metal recovery. For the management of electronic waste (E-waste), numerous studies have been conducted on extracting metals using technologies such as pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and biometallurgy. Bioprocessing can help recover metals from secondary sources such as E-waste and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). This research review aims to examine methods, focusing mainly on biological based methods for recovering metals from LIBs and E-waste, and to identify research gaps and areas for further research. This thesis contains a comprehensive overview of the metal recovery technologies from E-waste and LIBs, highlighting their benefits and drawbacks. A scoping literature review based on published articles and reviews using different keywords in Scopus database has been provided to give a complete overview of metal recovery from E-waste and LIBs using green technologies such as bioleaching and biosorption. Implementation of biotechnology is essential in achieving the goal of minimising waste, conserving valuable metals, and mitigating the negative environmental impact of metal extraction. Improving bioprocessing methods can provide the industry with an eco-friendly technology to address the challenges of the increasing lithium (Li) demand and waste from LIBs in the future. Despite the increased research effort regarding the use of biotechnological methods for metal recovery, the research is only in the early stages. Biotechnological based methods have a promising future. However, further large-scale research and pilot studies on microbial technology for metal recovery are needed to facilitate industrial upscaling

Literature Review, Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries from Electric Vehicles, Part I: Recycling Technology

During recent years, emissions reduction has been tightened worldwide. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for electric vehicles (EVs) that can meet emission requirements. The growing number of new EVs increases the consumption of raw materials during production. Simultaneously, the number of used EVs and subsequently retired lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) that need to be disposed of is also increasing. According to the current approaches, the recycling process technology appears to be one of the most promising solutions for the End-of-Life (EOL) LIBs—recycling and reusing of waste materials would reduce raw materials production and environmental burden. According to this performed literature review, 263 publications about “Recycling of Lithium-ion Batteries from Electric Vehicles” were classified into five sections: Recycling Processes, Battery Composition, Environmental Impact, Economic Evaluation, and Recycling & Rest. The whole work reviews the current-state of publications dedicated to recycling LIBs from EVs in the techno-environmental-economic summary. This paper covers the first part of the review work; it is devoted to the recycling technology processes and points out the main study fields in recycling that were found during this work