Energy Technologies and CO2 Management: Energy Efficiency, Decarbonization and CO2 Management
Sponsored by: TMS Extraction and Processing Division, TMS Light Metals Division, TMS: Energy Committee
Program Organizers: Shafiq Alam, University of Saskatchewan; Donna Guillen, Idaho National Laboratory; Fiseha Tesfaye, Metso Metals Oy, Åbo Akademi University; Lei Zhang, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Susanna Hockaday, Curtin University, WASM; Neale Neelameggham, IND LLC; Hong (Marco) Peng, University of Queensland; Nawshad Haque, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization; Liu Yan, Northeastern University

Monday 2:00 PM
March 20, 2023
Room: 33B
Location: SDCC

Session Chair: Shafiq Alam, University of Saskatchewan; Hong (Marco) Peng, University of Queensland; Liu Yan, Northeastern University


2:00 PM  Invited
CO2 Mineralization and Critical Battery Metals Recovery from Olivine and Nickel Laterites: Fei Wang1; David Dreisinger1; 1The University of British Columbia
    The global clean energy transition requires CO2 emission reduction with a concurrent increase in the global supply of critical battery metals. A process has been developed at the lab scale. The hydrometallurgical process achieves CO2 mineralization and selective battery metal recovery from olivine and laterites. The natural minerals are processed at modest temperature with a carbon dioxide pressure in a sodium bicarbonate solution containing soluble ligands enabling nickel and cobalt extraction. Iron and magnesium react with CO2 gas to form stable mineral carbonates for carbon dioxide sequestration. The leached nickel and cobalt are recovered by sulfide precipitation as high-value sulfides. The corresponding barren solution is recycled with no decrease in performance. The process consumes carbon dioxide and a source of sulfide. No additional acid or base is consumed in this novel process.

2:20 PM  Invited
Decarbonization Pathways for an Aluminum Rolling Mill and Downstream Processes: Alexander Wimmer1; 1Constantia Teich
    Europe wants to become the first climate-neutral continent in 2050. Some countries like Austria want to reach this ambitious goal already in 2040. Starting point was an analysis of the material and energy flows and the preparation of a CO2 balance. Regarding raw materials, concepts were developed which, on the one hand, allow a certain recycling content in the raw material and, on the other hand, make the products recyclable. In the case of solvents, fossil solvents were replaced by biogenic solvents. To cushion cost increases, a concept was developed to distinguish between the combustion of fossil and biogenic energy sources by C14 method, thus reducing the need to purchase certificates in the Emission Trading System. For natural gas, a concept was developed that significantly reduces natural gas consumption. Finally, a strategy was developed to make selected products 100% recyclable through measures such as mono-material composites or recycling-tolerant alloys.

2:40 PM  
Rethinking the Decomposition of Refractory Lithium Aluminosilicates: Opportunities for Energy-efficient Li Recovery from LCT Pegmatites: Joanne Gamage McEvoy1; Yves Thibault1; Nail Zagrtdenov1; Dominique Duguay1; 1Natural Resources Canada, CanmetMINING
    Extracting lithium from Li-Cs-Ta (LCT) pegmatites is highly energy-intensive, involving an initial heat treatment at temperatures exceeding 1000°C (decrepitation) to induce a transition in the refractory aluminosilicate carrier minerals (α-spodumene, petalite) to a more reactive phase (β-spodumene), allowing breakdown of the crystalline structure and lithium release in a subsequent acid baking stage (~250-300°C). This study focuses on investigating alternative, energy-efficient approaches to lithium recovery from LCT pegmatites. Our results indicate that there exist optimal conditions that induce effective alkali exchange directly from the primary phases, attainable at temperatures <450°C in under 30 mins, creating opportunities for a viable single-stage mineral decomposition process without the need for a decrepitation step. The nature of the reactive process will be discussed, where exchanged alkali and other impurities are partitioned in stable solid phases, allowing improved purity of the pregnant leach solution, therefore minimizing downstream challenges associated to battery precursor production (Li2CO3, LiOH.H2O).

3:00 PM Break

3:20 PM  Invited
Energy-saving Green Technologies in the Mining and Mineral Processing Industry: Shafiq Alam1; 1University of Saskatchewan
    Pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy are the two main processes to recover valuable metals from ore and secondary resources. While pyrometallurgy uses high temperatures to extract metals, in hydrometallurgy, an aqueous solution is used to extract metals from the mineral resources. As a result, hydrometallurgical techniques are considered to be energy-saving technologies in the mining and mineral processing industry. This paper will address how energy can be reduced to extract metals in the mining industries with an emphasis on the extraction of base metals such as copper and zinc. Our novel techniques can even reduce about 10 times energy than what is currently used in the conventional hydrometallurgical copper electrowinning processes. Those energy-saving green technologies would help meet the NetZero target in the mining and mineral processing industries.

3:40 PM  Invited
Extraction of Valuables Metals from Luanshya Copper Smelting Slag with Minimal Waste Generation: Namiluko Yaki1; Yotamu Hara1; Nachikonde Fumpa1; Agabu Shane1; Rainford Hara1; Makwenda Ngomba1; Ireen Musukwa1; Stephen Parirenyatwa1; Ronald Hara1; 1Copperbelt University
    An efficient method of separating valuable elements (copper, cobalt, chromium and sulphur) from copper smelting slag of Luanshya district of the Copperbelt province in Zambia has been developed. The as-received slag material was characterised via scanning electron microscope. The valuable elements were separated through a combination of magnetic separation, flotation and gravity separation steps. Magnetic separation of the as-received material separates cobalt/iron and copper/sulphur/chromium rich fractions due to differences in magnetic properties. Residual copper in the magnetic fraction was upgraded to more 25 weight % via flotation. By comparison, flotation of the non-magnetic fraction yielded low grade copper concentrate due to high presence of sulphur. Chromium was upgraded by a factor of more than 5 when the non-magnetic fraction was subjected to gravity concentration. The effect of particle size was studied during magnetic separation of feed material.

4:00 PM  
Carbon Footprint Assessment of Waste PCB Recycling Process through Black Copper Smelting Route in Australia: Aulia Qisthi Mairizal1; Agung Yoga Sembada1; Kwong Ming Tse1; Nawshad Haque2; M. Akbar Rhamdhani1; 1Swinburne University of Technology; 2CSIRO
    Electronic waste (e-waste) is one of fastest growing waste streams in Australia. The high potential value of precious metals in e-waste is a factor in the development of an e-waste recycling process facility in Australia. However, current research is more focused from the economic perspective. The environmental impact by using net carbon footprint as an indicator for developing comprehensive waste PCB processing facilities in the Australian context has been investigated. The paper analyses the current situation of e-waste management based on three different scenarios: (1) waste PCB in a small-scale facility (2) recycling of waste PCB integrated with industry (3) recycling of waste PCB in a centralised and large waste PCB recycling facility. The effect of transportation on carbon footprint of the proposed processes in the Australian context was studied. The results show scenarios with low carbon emission for recovering metals while minimising the environmental impact.

4:20 PM  
Screening High Entropy Alloys for Carbon Dioxide Reduction Reaction using Alchemical Perturbation Density Functional Theory: Mohamed Hendy1; Okan Orhan1; Homin Shin2; Ali Malek3; Mauricio Ponga1; 1The University of British Columbia; 2Security and Disruptive Technologies Research Centre, National Research Council Canada; 3Energy, Mining and Environment Research, National Research Council Canada
    The carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2 RR) has the potential to transform the production of carbon-based fuels to a closed carbon cycle with no net carbon emission. Recently, HEAs have shown remarkable catalytic performance for CO2 RR. The most challenging aspect about investigating HEA for CO2 RR stems from its inherent surface complexity. To tackle this issue, robust approaches to efficiently screen the configurational space of catalytic HEA materials need to be developed. An efficient method to navigate the configuration space of HEA alchemical perturbation density functional theory (APDFT). A key advantage of APDFT is that a single Density functional theory (DFT) calculation of the adsorbate's binding energy (BE) can be used to predict many hypothetical catalysts surface structures’ BE at a negligible additional computational cost. This characteristic makes APDFT an appealing technique to explore the configurational space of catalytic HEAs at significantly less computational cost compared to conventional DFT.