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H2020Individual fellowship2022–2024

IONIC BARRIER · pH-driven ionic barrier-based techniques to recover precious metals from urban mines

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2022-02-01 → 2024-01-31
EU contribution
€202,681
Participants
1
Scheme
MSCA-IF

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Results in brief

pH-driven ionic barrier-based techniques to recover precious metals from urban mines

Precious elements such as gold (Au), palladium (Pd), and platinum (Pt) are highly valued in global economies, however, their scarcity in the earth’s crust poses potential risks to future supply chains. Besides, the frequent replacement of electrical and electronic devices has resulted in a growing volume of e-wastes, with precious metal (PM) contents increasingly surpassing those found in natural ore deposits. It is therefore important to design appropriate techniques to recycle e-wastes and retrieve the PMs for reprocessing to meet the increasing industrial demands. This is particularly crucial from the viewpoints of resource sustainability and environmental safety, owing to the advantage of generating income through recycling and shielding the environment from pollution threats caused by the indiscriminate disposal of e-wastes. With focus on designing innovative materials and technologies to curtail the above-mentioned problems, the scientific advancement and breakthrough results can inspire other researchers and industries to explore creative solutions for environmental challenges. This can lead to a broader culture of collaboration, innovation, problem-solving and public awareness. The overall objective of this project is to design and develop ionic barrier-based techniques for PM recovery from urban mines (e-wastes). The project utilizes the properties and advantages of adsorption and hydroxide precipitation/crystallization to design high internal pH-driven ionic barrier-based protocols to recover PMs from aqueous solutions by employing polyelectrolyte complexation. The project aims to create a domestic valuable raw materials source for the European manufacturing and hi-tech industries by shifting towards a circular economy and lessening the European Union’s dependence on raw material imports.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Precious metals (PMs) including Au, Pd, Pt are naturally occurring elements of high economic values. However, they face future supply-chain risks due to their limited abundance in the earth’s crust. Meanwhile, frequent replacements of electrical and electronic devices are leading to accumulated amounts of e-wastes, with PM contents gradually superseding natural ore deposits. Urban mining is the act of recovering PMs from e-wastes. This technique is important from economic and environmental remediation viewpoints, owing to the prospects of generating income through recycling and protecting the environment from pollution dangers. This proposal aims to utilize the properties and advantages of adsorption and hydroxide precipitation to design internal pH-driven ionic barrier-based protocols to recover PMs from urban mines (e-wastes). The proposed techniques will involve the fabrication of polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) capsules using poly(diallyldimethylammonium), PDADMA and poly(styrenesulfonate), PSS. Here, a new concept of “ionic barrier” will be combined with metal-hydroxide formation to help retain high internal pH within the PEC capsules. The capsules will create ionic barriers that will promote selective passage of PMs and reject heavy metals such as Cd, Pb, Hg etc., whilst the high internal pH will induce hydrolysis and metal hydroxide formation between OH ions and the penetrated PMs within the capsules. For further improvement of the recovery efficiency, the functional polymer, polyethyleneimine (PEI) will be immobilized. Strategic recovery techniques will be designed via sequential desorption and adsorption-coupled incineration to obtain elemental PMs. Consequently, these protocols are expected to enhance separation and recovery of PMs, and eliminate the hydroxide sludge and sulfide gases that usually accompany the precipitation process. Moreover, it will help to salvage the supply-chain risk associated with PMs, and keep their continuous supply to industries.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • LAPPEENRANNAN-LAHDEN TEKNILLINEN YLIOPISTO LUT · LappeenrantaCoordinatorFinland

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Data: CORDIS, © European Union