New Directions in Mineral Processing, Extractive Metallurgy, Recycling and Waste Minimization: An EPD Symposium in Honor of Patrick R. Taylor: Hydrometallurgy
Sponsored by: Society for Mining Metallurgy and Exploration, TMS Extraction and Processing Division, TMS: Pyrometallurgy Committee, TMS: Hydrometallurgy and Electrometallurgy Committee, TMS: Materials Characterization Committee, TMS: Energy Committee, TMS: Recycling and Environmental Technologies Committee
Program Organizers: Ramana Reddy, University of Alabama; Corby Anderson, Colorado School of Mines; Erik Spiller, Colorado School of Mines; Edgar Vidal, NobelClad; Camille Fleuriault, Eramet Norway; Alexandra Anderson, Gopher Resource; Mingming Zhang, Baowu Ouyeel Co. Ltd; Christina Meskers, SINTEF
Wednesday 8:30 AM
March 22, 2023
Room: 33C
Location: SDCC
Session Chair: Edgar Vidal, NobelClad; Judith Vidal, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
8:30 AM Invited
Enhancing Performance in Hydrometallurgical Extraction, Separation, and Recovery of Metals: Michael Free1; 1University of Utah
There are many opportunities to improve performance in hydrometallurgical processing of minerals into metals. Hydrometallurgical processing starts with leaching, which is preceded by comminution, and followed by separation and recovery. This presentation will discuss different techniques and modeling that can be applied to improve hydrometallurgical extraction, separation, and recovery of metals.
9:00 AM Invited
The Importance of Autoclave and Piping Materials Selection for HPAL and POX Metals Extraction Processes: Edgar Vidal1; 1NobelClad
Nickel laterites and refractory gold are amongst many other types of ore bodies that require intensive physical and chemical processing technologies to extract their metallic constituents. Relatively high pressures and temperatures, along with harsh acids are typically required, thus High-Pressure Acid Leaching (HPAL) and Pressure Oxidation Leaching (POX) are commonly used. As important as the process itself, the material selection for the autoclave and the piping is critical. The majority of the times only CAPEX is being considered, while OPEX is something that "will be addressed in the future". In this article, the author will present reasons why it makes more technical and economic sense to consider titanium cladding options, rather than the more traditional refractory-lined autoclaves, and solid titanium pipes.
9:30 AM
Investigation of Cerium, Terbium, and Lantanium Dissolution Parameters in Fluorescent Wastes by Microwave Leaching: Aysegul Bilen1; U. Hatipoglu1; M. Saridede1; 1Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi
Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are important raw materials because of their crucial applications. REE-containing items can be recycled for lower cost than ore-based primary production, especially waste fluorescent lamps. There are red, blue and green phosphor powders within the phosphor powder on the inner surface of fluorescent glasses. Red phosphorus powder contains yttrium oxide (Y2O3) and europium oxide (Eu2O3). Terbium oxide (Tb2O3), lanthanum oxide (La2O3), and Ce2O3 phases are attached to aluminate or phosphate radicals in blue and green phosphorus powders. In this study, microwave-assisted leaching was carried out to dissolve the leaching residue, which is formed by the exposure of the fluorescent powder to leaching at 80°C for 360 minutes. The effects of parameters such as solid-liquid ratio (0.2/100, 06/100, and 0.8/100), temperature (80, 120, 160°C), and time (15, 30, 60, and 90 min.) on dissolution efficiency of Ce, Tb, La metals in green and blue phosphors were investigated.
9:50 AM Break
10:10 AM Invited
Research and Industrial Application of Selenium and Tellurium Recovery Processes: Shijie Wang1; 1Coeur Mining, Inc.
Selenium and tellurium are semiconductors, and their compounds are similar. Both are chemically closely related, but selenium and tellurium behave somewhat differently. Tellurium forms inorganic and organic compounds which are superficially similar to the corresponding selenium compounds, and yet dissimilar in properties and behavior. The first part of this paper describes differences of selenium and tellurium in their chemical reactions of the research work. A second part of the paper presents the applications of selenium and tellurium recovery processes that are always hot topics in today’s extractive metallurgy field.
10:40 AM
Nickel Matte as Novel Reductant in Galvanic Leaching of Spent Lithium-ion Battery Black Mass: Erik Prasetyo1; Sulalit Bandyopadhyay1; 1Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Hydrometallurgy is the most applied technology to extract valuable metals from spent lithium-ion battery, which H2SO4-H2O2 combination is mostly used as lixiviant. However, H2O2 application poses several problems including instability and high reactivity in high temperature leaching. In here, nickel matte (NM; Ni-Cu Sulfide) is proposed as a novel reductant in H2SO4 leaching. The effects of NM dosage, pulp density, H2SO4 concentration, temperature, and reaction time on metal recovery has been studied. The results demonstrate that NM improves metal dissolution. With leaching condition H2SO4 1 M, pulp density 5%, temperature 70 °C, both Co and Mn recovery are doubled when NM is added. NM addition also enhances the metal leaching kinetics, which maximum metal recovery is attained within 30 min (NM addition), compared to 4 h for control condition. Aside from its advantage as reductant, NM addition could increase Ni concentration in leachate, which further facilitate direct nickel-rich cathode syntheses.
11:00 AM
Recyclability of Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolysers for Green Hydrogen Production: Nawshad Haque1; Sarb Giddey1; Sejuti Saha1; Paul Sernia2; 1CSIRO; 2Endua
Renewed interest in green hydrogen energy due to its versatility and ability to decarbonise numerous economic sectors prompted to research on the evaluation of sustainability of associated technologies. Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) water electrolysis is a promising technology to produce hydrogen gas from water electrolysis using renewable power. However, PEM electrolysers use rare noble metals and other expensive materials. Furthermore, the availability and supply risks are additional concerns for the critical metals. Hence, this paper explores the review of the recycling process of PEM electrolysers from the point of collection to the final material recovery stage and the potential reuse in the manufacturing process. Several studies have highlighted existing and novel recycling technologies for the different materials used in electrolyser components. Some of these methods include hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, transient electrochemical dissolution, selective electrochemical dissolution, and acidic process. Overview of these processes and implication of recycling will be presented here.