Description du projet
Stimuler la récupération des métaux précieux
Les déchets électroniques, constitués d’appareils électriques ou électroniques mis au rebut, constituent une préoccupation croissante dans le monde entier. Ils contiennent de nombreux composants, dont des métaux précieux (MP) qui deviennent plus abondants que les gisements de minerai naturels. Les PM ont une grande valeur économique, principalement en raison de leur rareté, c’est pourquoi beaucoup d’efforts ont été consacrés à leur récupération grâce à l’exploitation minière urbaine. Le projet IONIC BARRIER, financé par l’UE, entend concevoir des protocoles internes guidés par des barrières ioniques basées sur le pH afin d’améliorer la récupération et la séparation des PM dans les mines urbaines. Pour y parvenir, le projet utilisera les propriétés et les avantages de l’adsorption et de la précipitation d’hydroxyde.
Objectif
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.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinateur
53850 Lappeenranta
Finlande