FILTRENE MINING Solution: Recovery of valuable metals from water stream in mining industry
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Grafren AB |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 472 175 |
| Project duration | March 2020 - September 2020 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | The strategic innovation programme for Swedish mining and metal producing industry - SIP Swedish Mining Innovation |
| Call | Towards a sustainable development in the mining and metal extraction industry |
Important results from the project
The technical and economic potential of FILTRENE technology for recovery of metal ions in waste and process water was verified through the i) analysing water samples at different points of waste water stream at Bolidens Rönnskärs Reningsverk, ii) passing the water through FILTRENE sorbent, analysing the outcoming water iii) the sorbent, containing certain metals was regenerated and the metals were collected in the liquid highly concentrated solution. Analysing the content of the concentrated solution we identified which and how much metals are recovered to which cost.
Expected long term effects
Effektiviteten för metallupptagningen är mycket känslig för vatteninnehållet och drivs av tre faktorer: i) absorberande upptagningskapacitet ii) ömsesidiga koncentrationer av metallerna iii) pH i vattnet. För de valda vattens typ är Filtrene inte optimal, eftersom den inte är fokuserad på någon specifik metall, vilket kan vara målet för gruvindustrin. Den kan lösas via preliminär avlägsnande av onödiga element (som kalcium i vårt fall) för att erhålla specifik absorptionskänslighet för den specifika metallen.
Approach and implementation
Among the different points of water sampling, most promising were two of them, which demonstrated the following descending rate of absorption: Point 1. Pb, Cu, Fe, Ag, As, Cd, Sn, Ni, Sb. Point 2: Al Pb, Cd, Ag, Ca, Cu, Mg, Fe, Zn, As, Ni. Estimated economic benefit from using Filtrene solution was rather low, primarily due to high cost of graphene materials for sorbent production and it low regeneration ability (limited number of use) and was found to cost 1 g - 100 SEK for total weight of 840 mg of metals of highest value to be recovered.