Non-aqueous solvent extraction of metal ions

The transition towards a climate-neutral, eco-friendly economy critically depends on the availability of a wide variety of high-purity metals (e.g. cobalt). Solvent extraction (liquid-liquid extraction) is an important unit process used by the metallurgical industry for the recovery, separation and purification of metal salts. Solvent extraction is based on distribution of metal ions between two immiscible liquid phases, often an aqueous and an organic phase. Tis project investigates non-aqueous solvent extraction, which involves two immiscible organic phases. This allows to obtain other selectivities than in aqueous solutions. This project targets the intensification of solvent extraction technology for small-volume, but high-value streams containing critical metals. To that end, research is performed on the chemical development and optimisation of solvent extraction systems in milliflow devices using non-aqueous solvent extraction with ionic liquids. The work will be performed on three case-studies: the preparation of battery-grade cobalt, the separation of platinum/ palladium/rhodium and the purification of germanium. The project results enable to increase the efficiency of separation processes in the metallurgical and chemical industry.