Five Clausthal projects in the DFG Priority Program SPP 2315 EnAM - "Engineered Artificial Minerals" - approved with funding of nearly two million euros
The increasing complexity of products and the components and composites used in them in the high-tech sector means that a large number of elements with different chemical and physical properties are now being used. Conventional methods of dismantling and mechanically processing the components, some of which are microscopic, are no longer sufficient to ensure the recovery of all valuable materials, which is especially critical for economically strategic raw materials in low concentrations. Therefore, pyrometallurgical processes are used, in which, however, some of the valuable carriers are expelled into the slags and have so far been lost. A typical example is the recycling of lithium-ion batteries. The recovery of the valuable carriers, often contained in low concentrations, from these slags is the goal of the internally funded lead project "EnAM" (Engineered Artificial Minerals) of the research field "Securing Raw Materials and Resource Efficiency" at Clausthal University of Technology.
Building on the activities in the EnAM lead project, the TU Clausthal, with Professor Ursula Fittschen and Professor Daniel Goldmann in the lead, has successfully applied to the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a priority program (SPP 2315) entitled "Engineered Artificial Minerals - a Geometallurgical Tool to Recycle Critical Elements from Waste Streams" in cooperation with the TU Bergakademie Freiberg. Within the framework of this program, different aspects of the recycling of slags are to be researched in 19 individual projects during a six-year funding phase.
The TU Clausthal was able to successfully participate with five projects and a total funding amount of 1.93 million euros. The projects, which were approved at the end of August, deal with thermodynamic aspects of the solidification of slags, the analysis of material and phase composition, the concentration of the target component in dry and wet sorting processes and the production of calibration slags.
Professor Alfons Esderts, Vice President for Research, Transfer and International Affairs at Clausthal University of Technology, welcomes this success: "The university sees its decision to actively promote the development of its four research fields confirmed and is eagerly awaiting the results of the other lead projects."
The five projects in the first funding phase are:
Institute of Energy Process Engineering and Fuel Technology (Professor Michael Fischlschweiger): MEPP-based modeling and simulation of phase transformations and phase evolutions in the LAS system, taking into account various kinetic phenomena during solidification.
Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry (Professor Ursula Fittschen, Professor Nina Gunkelmann, Dr. Thomas Schirmer): Formation of critical compounds in recycled slags - a study of the chemistry of the melt with MD simulation and of the solid products in a micro-preparative approach.
Institute for Repository Research (Dr. Thomas Schirmer, Professor Alfred Ludwig, University of Bochum): Investigation of phase formation and phase constitution in the Li-Mg-Al-O and Li-Al-Mn-O systems with special reference to spinel solid solutions.
Institute of Organic Chemistry (Professor Andreas Schmidt): Switchable selective collectors for the flotation of artificially produced minerals
Institute of Mechanical Process Engineering (Professor Alfred Weber, Dr.-Ing. Annett Wollmann): Charge-induced dry concentration of lithium-containing components in slag fine powders