MSci Student

Project Title:  Ionic liquid-based metal extraction from sulphide ores

Supervisor: Dr. Tim Albrecht 

Metal sulfide ores like Chalcopyrite and Molybdenite are important primary sources of metals. As high grade ores have been extracted for a long time, ore grades are falling globally – making metal extraction more difficult and more expensive.¹ The two common ways of processing metal ores are pyrometallurgical (heating the ore – often in presence of a reducing agent – and then extracting the liquid metal) and hydrometallurgical (chemically dissolving the ore) methods. While the former uses large amounts of energy to create the required heat and often emits gasses like carbon monoxide or sulfur dioxide, the latter often uses very corrosive and often toxic chemicals and suffers from surface passivation, which prevents complete metal extraction.

Recently, ionic liquids (liquids which are composed of ions i.e. salts with very low melting points) have been identified as promising alternative lixiviants. It has been shown that ionic liquids can extract metal more efficiently than for example the commonly used sulfuric acid. At the same time, ionic liquids are more environmentally friendly. An ionic liquid consists of a cation and an anion – either of which can be functionalized, giving a large number of possible ionic liquids. Furthermore, small changes – such as concentration and additives – can strongly affect leaching performance. As a result there is an enormous number of possible ionic liquid based leaching systems. The group has developed a robotic platform to test large numbers of leaching systems and to identify and optimize new systems. ²

My project focuses on developing a better understanding of the mechanism of metal leaching in ionic liquids.

References:
[1] T. Norgate, S. Jahanshahi, Minerals Engineering , 23 , 2010, 65–73
[2] D. Godfrey, J. H. Bannock, O. Kuzmina, T. Welton and T. Albrecht, Green Chem., 2016, 18 , 1930– 1937.