IMCN/iMMC seminar - Koen BINNEMANS

Solvometallurgy: an emerging branch of extractive metallurgy

Koen Binnemans

KU Leuven, Department of Chemistry, Celestijnenlaan 200F, P.O. Box 2404, B-3001 Leuven (Belgium). E-mail: Koen.Binnemans@kuleuven.be

The seminar will start by a series of 3 minutes pitch of 5 or 6 PhD students of the two institutes (IMCN-iMMC) to briefly present the subject of their research.

This is an opportunity to meet and listen to Prof. Binnemans, chemist, advanced ERC grantee, and world expert on many important societal questions regarding the recycling and re-use of metals, the management of rare earth elements and many other subjects.

ABSTRACT :

Solvometallurgy is the extraction of metals from ores, tailings, industrial process residues, production scrap and urban waste using non-aqueous solutions. Solvometallurgy differs from hydrometallurgy by the absence of a discrete water phase. The solvents are either organic or inorganic solvents (excluding water). Sustainable solvometallurgical processes must be based on green solvents. Therefore, toxic or environmentally harmful solvents must be avoided.  Most of the unit processes in solvometallurgy are very similar to those in hydrometallurgy, with the main difference being that the water is replaced by a non-aqueous solvent.
Solvometallurgy is complementary to pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy. However, this new approach offers several advantages. Firstly, the consumption of water is very limited offering a major advantage in regions where there is a shortage of water. Secondly, the leaching and solvent extraction can be combined in a single step, which leads to simplified process flow sheets. Thirdly, solvent leaching can be more selective than leaching with acidic aqueous solutions, leading to reduced acid consumption and less purification steps. Fourthly, solvometallurgy is useful for the treatment of ores that are rich in soluble silica (such as eudialyte) as no silica gel is formed. Hence, solvometallurgy is in a position to help develop near-zero-waste metallurgical processes, and with levels of energy consumption that are much less than with high-temperature processes.
In this seminar, an overview of the development of solvometallurgy will be given, with emphasis on recent work done at the SOLVOMET group of KU Leuven.
 
Website research group: https://chem.kuleuven.be/solvomet