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BIA-Brukerstyrt innovasjonsarena

RecirkIrRu: Recycling of Iridium and Ruthenium

Alternative title: RecirkIrRu: Resirkulering av Iridium og Ruthenium

Awarded: NOK 3.4 mill.

Project Manager:

Project Number:

313754

Project Period:

2020 - 2024

Funding received from:

Location:

Platinum group metals (PGM) are six chemically very similar elements: i.e. platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh), iridium (Ir) Ruthenium (Ru) and Osmium (Os). Mineable deposits are very rare and found in relatively few areas of the world. South Africa dominates the PGM world production with 58%, Russia accounts for a further 26%, most of this as a co-product of nickel mining. Moreover, the world demand is steadily increasing mostly due to the high loads of PGM currently used in automobile catalysts, thus complying with the increasingly restrictive emissions legislation. To decouple Norway and Europe from unstable suppliers, secondary material streams must be fostered. Moreover, the recovery of these valuable elements from by-products and waste streams is in good harmony with the goals of the Circular Economy towards zero-waste societies. K.A. Rasmussen (KAR) has recently seen an increase in inquiries for producing products consisting of iridium and ruthenium, as well as capturing and producing pure quality metals of these elements. KAR does today lack the knowledge needed to efficiently digest/dissolve these elements, which is a necessity to deliver the desired service to the market. To this point in the project, the work has revolved around new alternative methods for dissolution of Ir and Ru, which are very chemically stable elements. The benefit of succeeding with these methods is an process which is closer to existing processes and knowledge at KAR, compared to todays best practice. So far, the results are promising. On the best runs the method is at a highly competitive level, but there are challenges regarding stability of these results, especially across different feed material containing Ir and Ru. Improving stability is the top priority going forward.

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Platinum group metals (PGM) are six chemically very similar elements: i.e. platinum (Pt), palladium (Pd), rhodium (Rh), iridium (Ir) Ruthenium (Ru) and Osmium (Os). Mineable deposits are very rare and found in relatively few areas of the world. South Africa dominates the PGM world production with 58%, Russia accounts for a further 26%, most of this as a co-product of nickel mining. Moreover, the world demand is steadily increasing mostly due to the high loads of PGM currently used in automobile catalysts, thus complying with the increasingly restrictive emissions legislation. To decouple Norway and Europe from unstable suppliers, secondary material streams must be fostered. Moreover, the recovery of these valuable elements from by-products and waste streams is in good harmony with the goals of the Circular Economy towards zero-waste societies. K.A. Rasmussen (KAR) has recently seen an increase in inquiries for producing products consisting of iridium and ruthenium, as well as capturing and producing pure quality metals of these elements. KAR does today lack the knowledge needed to efficiently digest/dissolve these elements, which is a necessity to deliver the desired service to the market. However, efficient and selective extraction of PGM, as especially of Ir and Ru from different matrices (ores or wastes) is challenging, mainly due to their chemical properties (inertness). These elements also have a tendency to form oxides when exposed for traditional methods of extraction, thus preventing from their effective recovery and the subsequent efficiency loss in the process. The project will focus on the investigation of innovative methods that may circumvent this problem, thus achieving good extraction efficiencies, without penalizing the purity of the recovered material and/or environmental footprint of the extraction process. Moreover, the project will bring more knowledge to a field where there are large uncertainties regarding best practice and efficiencies.

Funding scheme:

BIA-Brukerstyrt innovasjonsarena