Project description
Boosting the recovery of precious metals
Electronic waste, consisting of discarded electrical or electronic devices, is a growing concern worldwide. It contains many components, including precious metals (PMs) that are steadily becoming more abundant than natural ore deposits. PMs are of great economic value mainly due to their rarity, which is why much effort has been placed into their recovery through urban mining. The EU-funded IONIC BARRIER project aims to design internal pH-driven ionic barrier-based protocols in order to enhance the recovery and separation of PMs from urban mines. To achieve this, the project will use the properties and advantages of adsorption and hydroxide precipitation.
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.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- engineering and technology environmental engineering waste management waste treatment processes recycling
- natural sciences chemical sciences polymer sciences
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
53850 Lappeenranta
Finland
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.