ArcelorMittal

ArcelorMittal Innovación, Investigación e Inversión, S.L.

Industrial partner The SAMEX project AM’s main role is to check the implementation of SAMEX technology at an industrial environment , and later drive the project towards commercial implementation if proven to be successful. AM leads the Go-to-Market WP, further upscales its sludge dewatering process and assists in the ultimate upscaling of the ammoniacal leaching process. AM will lead the tasks at the pilot plant level and test process validation at TRL7.

Tecnalia

Fundación Tecnalia Research & Innovation

Coordinator Tecnalia’s roles in SAMEX consist of the project coordination, the further upscaling of the ammoniacal leaching process from KU Leuven’s 5 L reactor to Tecnalia’s 100L reactor, the solid/liquid separation through its filter press installations in San Sebastian, assisting KU Leuven in the upscaling of the ZnS precipitation process, the LCA and process economics evaluation, and assistance in the engineering of the pilot plant. In SAMEX Tecnalia participates through the Waste Valorisation group in the Energy and Environmental Division, which mainly focuses on metallurgy and has extensive capabilities of pyro-, hydro-, and ionometallurgy for critical and high-tech metal recovery from secondary wastes.

Tecnalia’s 100 L leaching reactor

Tecnalia’s filter press installation

KU Leuven

Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (KU Leuven)

Research Partner KU Leuven’s main roles in SAMEX are the upscaling of the ammoniacal leaching procedure (5 L reactor scale), the development of the ZnS precipitation process and its mini pilot-scale testing and the communication, dissemination and education tasks (WP8). In SAMEX, KU Leuven participates through the SOLVOMET Group of Prof. Koen Binnemans (Department of Chemistry) (https://chem.kuleuven.be/solvomet). SOLVOMET is active in R&D in metallurgical chemistry and host an industrial service center (https://solvomet.eu/) which aims to assist industrial partners in the conceptual and practical development of more sustainable solvometallurgical (and hydrometallurgical) separation processes and new mining chemicals, which are subsequently tested using state-of-the-art lab-scale and mini pilot-scale experimental facilities.

KU Leuven’s 5 L hydro/solvoleaching reactor