HomeUncategorised SCALE pilot in Mytilineos Plant
SCALE pilot in Mytilineos Plant
18/08/2021 By christina Comments are Off
A new hydrometallurgical pilot unit was built in MYTILINEOS Aluminium of Greece plant under the SCALE project. The pilot unit consists of the leaching section where Bauxite Residue is treated with sulfuric acid to produce a PLS that is processed in II-VI SIR pilot section unit, where Sc recovery and crude Sc concentrate production takes place.
The pilot leaching unit has a daily operation process of 236 kg of dry BR to produce around 4 g of Sc into PLS. During the SCALE leaching campaigns almost 10 t of BR were treated and 14 m3 of PLS were produced in the specification of SIR purification technology. A total of 140g of Sc was present in the resulting leachate for purification. From each ton of BR 17.15g Sc are dissolved into the PLS.
Subsequently the PLS was processed int the II-VI SIR pilot, achieving a SIR resin loading of about 3,500 mg Sc per litter of resin, without reaching the resin's exhaustion point. The elution of the Sc-loaded resin resulted to a solution containing 865 mg/l Sc, which in turn once precipitated produced a crude Sc hydroxide concentrate containing 22% Sc. Through the leaching and purification pilot work, Sc was concentrated more than 3000 times from BR to the crude Sc concentrate. The significant increase in Sc content substantially reduces the sizing requirements for downstream purification steps and presents a pragmatic approach to the recovery of scandium from Bauxite Residue.
WHAT IS SCANDIUM?
Scandium is a chemical element with symbol Sc and atomic number 21. A silvery-white metallic d-block element, it was discovered in 1879 by spectral analysis of the minerals euxenite and gadolinite from Scandinavia.
Scandium is a rare-earth metal, used in small amounts but with drastic effects on properties of matter. It is a key component in producing high strength Aluminium alloys used in aerospace and 3D printing as well as in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) applications.
SCANDIUM SUPPLY
Scandium is present in most of the deposits of rare-earth and uranium compounds, but it is extracted from these ores in only a few mines worldwide. Scandium supply is limited due its scarcity and the high cost of its production, which currently takes place in Asia and Russia. Europe has no production of Scandium, but is home to many Scandium end-users and to industries having Scandium in their industrial residues. By converting waste into resources and thus developing a stable and secure EU scandium supply chain to serve the needs of EU aerospace and high tech industry, SCALE project will contribute to reduce dependency on imports of raw materials.
SCALE PROJECT
Scandium is an enabler in vital sectors like clean energy, transport, optics and advanced materials. Despite having a proven set of impressive applications, its volatile price and unreliable supply chain limit their deployment. SCALE develops innovative technologies that can extract economically and sustainably Sc from dilute mediums (<100 mg/L) and upgrade them to pure oxides, metals and alloys at lower energy or material cost. This will be achieved through the development of a number of innovative extraction, separation, refining and alloying technologies that will be validated in an appropriate laboratory and industrial environment to prove their technical and economic feasibility. SCALE builds on the success of previous and on-going European research projects like ENEXAL, EURARE, REECover, REE4EU and REMAGHIC.
© 2017-18 | SCALE has received funding from the European Community's Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020/2014-2020) under grant agreement n° 730105
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