Over the next three years, a consortium of seven scientific institutions and companies, under the leadership of the Fraunhofer IWKS project group, will develop innovative processes for the recovery of rare earth elements and platinum group metals from mineral processing and production residues. As part of the MinSEM project, processes are being explored that make it possible to process a broad spectrum of mineral materials in such a way that the recovery of strategic metals is accompanied by the utilization of residual fractions. The research project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with 1,2 million in the context of the funding priority "r4 - Innovative Technologies for Resource Efficiency - Research for the Provision of Strategic Raw Materials" in the Framework Program "Research for Sustainable Development (FONA)". Project start was 2015 in June.
When recycling automotive catalytic converters, large volumes of slags are produced, which contain a large number of strategic metals such as cerium and lanthanum from the group of rare earth elements and platinum group metals. Also in the production residues of spectacle lenses, the so-called flint glasses, rare earth elements are present in non-negligible quantities. In oxidic form, the glasses contain a lanthanum content of up to 40 wt .-%, making them a suitable lanthanum source of raw materials. So far, these valuable and sometimes critical elements have not been recovered, since an adequate process chain from crushing to recovery to reuse was missing. Creating the conditions for converting them back into usable products and thus closing the recycling cycle is one goal of the "MinSEM" joint project. In addition, "MinSEM" will provide fundamental insights into the feasibility of reusing waste residue fractions from the different value streams flexibly in new products. Thus, such a procedure could also be applied to other material flows, for example slag from smelting processes.
For the recovery of the rare earth elements and platinum group metals, two innovative methods are used. In a first general step, the slags and glasses are crushed and processed mechanochemically. The following wet-chemical treatment produces concentrated aqueous solutions which are processed via "liquid-liquid extractions" based on ionic liquids in order to be able to separate rare earth elements and platinum group metals down to the technical standard. In a second process, which is tailored to the recycling of special glasses, the rare earth elements are to be separated selectively from the production residues via solid-gas reactions. Thus, rare earth compounds are generated, which are optionally further worked up with ionic liquids or can be converted by means of a thermal treatment in the oxides of rare earth elements.
The rare earth metals thus obtained are to be used as oxides in the production process of special glasses and in the form of metals as a raw material for the production of high-tech products. The residual mineral fractions from slags and glasses can again be used in the construction sector. With appropriate quality, large quantities of the material can be used here. This applies to the field of building materials, where the material can be used as an aggregate in the manufacture of products such as concrete or geopolymers, such as traffic infrastructure.
The consortium
The Fraunhofer project group for recycling and resource strategy IWKS is coordinating the project. In addition to the project group and the TU Dresden / Professorship for Physical Organic Chemistry, the companies Duesmann & Hensel Recycling GmbH, ratiochem GmbH, Maleki GmbH, ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems GmbH and Barberini GmbH have joined forces in the consortium. The partners bring the respective competencies and know-how into the research project, which make it possible to carry out the individual project phases from the laboratory to the upscaling to the pilot scale. Duesmann & Hensel Recycling and Barberini provide the slag material and the special glasses. The Fraunhofer IWKS project group is developing the chemical processes together with the TU Dresden. ratiochem and IWKS, in turn, are scaling up the chemical processes, while Maleki, together with ThyssenKrupp, carries out further investigations into the recycling of the residual fractions. The melting process is optimized by Duesmann & Hensel Recycling.
A joint press release from
The Fraunhofer project group for recyclable material cycles and resource strategy IWKS With locations in Alzenau and Hanau, 2011 was founded by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft under the umbrella of the Fraunhofer ISC. In the resource strategy, reusable material recycling and substitution business areas, efforts are being made to safeguard the supply of raw materials for our industry in the long term, thus making it possible to maintain a leading position in high technology in the future. For this purpose, innovative separation, sorting, processing and substitution options are being researched together with industrial partners.
Barberini GmbH
As a globally recognized manufacturer of specialty glasses, Barberini carries out the necessary process steps for the production of the glasses. In the sense of quality management, a standard and customer-specific analysis is carried out accompanying the production, in the course of which the glasses and their waste are constantly examined with regard to the contents of rare earth elements. Likewise, the company is familiar with the quality requirements for raw materials to be used, which make a meaningful evaluation of the recovered rare earth oxides possible with respect to reuse in glass production.
Duesmann & Hensel Recycling GmbH
Duesmann & Hensel Recycling GmbH also carries out the metallurgical step for manufacturing the slag systems and platinum group elements. That is why Duesmann & Hensel Recycling is very familiar with the large-scale processes currently in operation worldwide for the recovery of the platinum group metals palladium, platinum and rhodium from automotive catalytic converters.
Maleki GmbH
Climate change is a global challenge that needs to be addressed with practical solutions, products and new technologies. Maleki GmbH specializes in the development and manufacture of building materials that reduce clinker emissions to a huge, environmentally friendly effect, namely reducing CO2 emissions. Previous goals and planning were based on the research and development of new binder systems that effectively and favorably replace cement and epoxy resins. Through years of experience in research, use of renewable 26 raw materials, intensive work and investment, Maleki GmbH has been able to achieve a particularly large part of the goal and has meanwhile developed several products with a new binder. Products made with the binder save material and processing time with better properties. They have a significantly longer durability and thus a longer service life with excellent physical properties.
ratiochem GmbH
The innovative chemical company ratiochem GmbH has the core competencies in the production of high-quality inorganic, organic and organometallic fine and specialty chemicals (mainly silicon (-organic) compounds for use in construction chemicals), the development of tailor-made solutions for its customers in custom synthesis of Laboratory scale, from pilot production to commercial production according to DIN EN ISO 9001, as well as material sourcing and consulting in the development of chemical materials and technologies. In particular, ratiochem GmbH has know-how in the handling of chemicals on a liquid basis as well as their production.
ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems GmbH
ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems and its predecessor companies have been dealing with the processing (crushing, classifying, sieving and recycling) and the economic use / marketing of slag from the iron and steel industry for several decades. Every year, more than 1,2 million t of different slag qualities are processed at various ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems locations and manufacturers in Germany and, for the most part, successfully marketed as products for road and path construction, landscaping and hydraulic engineering, as well as fertilizers and for the cement industry. ThyssenKrupp MillServices & Systems has already worked as an industrial partner in various research projects of the Working Group of Industrial Research Associations "Otto von Guericke" eV (AiF) and has in-depth knowledge of the transfer of research results with the aim of using slag as environmentally friendly and effective as possible in practical applications.
TU Dresden
The Technische Universität Dresden is one of the eleven universities of excellence in Germany: strong in research, first-class in the diversity and quality of study programs, closely linked to culture, business and society. As a modern full-service university, it offers a broad spectrum of scientific research with its 14 faculties. It is the largest university in Saxony with 37.000 students and around 7.770 employees. The synthesis of imidazoles and imidazolium salts as well as the construction of various heterocycles has a long tradition at the Chair of Physical Organic Chemistry. In the course of this work, Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Straßner a new generation
of ionic liquids with interesting properties, the so-called TAAILs (Tunable Aryl Alkyl Ionic Liquids). These promise a very high application potential for the industrial separation and recovery of the metals mentioned.
30.09.2015
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