CD Laboratory for Selective Recovery of Minor Metals in Innovative Process Concepts

Special metals are required in many high-tech applications, but are usually only a by-product. In order to make their recovery scalable, this CD Laboratory is researching ways of tapping into industrial process streams as an additional source.

A large number of rare metals are required for the European high-tech industry and therefore also for our society. As technologies have become increasingly complex in recent decades and are still subject to continuous change, the quantity and type of special metals used is constantly increasing. Along with this technological innovation, the demand for these speciality metals is also increasing. For economic reasons, primary production is usually only carried out as a by-product. It is therefore difficult to respond to increased demand for these metals.

In principle, two sources can be tapped, namely the already well-developed recycling of consumer goods on the one hand and extraction from metallurgical process streams, intermediate or by-products on the other. The second area is still little researched. The development of basic scientific methods required for this and the establishment of scientific expertise are the subject of this CD Laboratory.

Sound knowledge of the distribution of special metals and their behaviour in metallurgical treatment steps forms the scientific basis for any extraction process design. To this end, methods must be developed to describe the distribution of speciality metals in existing phases and compounds. Furthermore, it must be investigated how they behave in metallurgical processes and how they can be enriched in certain compounds and phases.

One of the main challenges in this context is the low concentration of target elements compared to a dominant matrix. In order to understand the high number of factors influencing element distribution and kinetics, algorithms are used to analyse the experimental data.

To summarise, this CD Laboratory is concerned with building up knowledge on the systematic assessment of industrial process streams with regard to the extraction of special metals. The research includes the development of methods to determine the element distribution, the behaviour of special metals in metallurgical processes and the possibility of influencing these processes to extract the special metals.