The SOCRATES team launched a Press Release on its recent Policy Brief “Lead Metallurgy is Fundamental to the Circular Economy”, claiming the EU’s circular economy plans risk stalling if regulators pursue ill-judged restrictions.
On February 26, 2019, the Interreg Europe project COCOON hosted a workshop on “Landfill management: from landfill to useful resource” at the World Resources Forum in Antwerp (Belgium). All presentations are now available.
The SOLVOMET Group (SIM² KU Leuven), which develops solvometallurgical flow sheets, has synthesized new Deep Eutectic Solvents that can selectively dissolve metal oxides from industrial residues derived from the mining industry.
On February 5-7, 2019, the DEMETER Concluding Symposium took place in Leuven. Around 70 experts from 38 organisations and 11 countries participated in the debate about the future of Electric Vehicles and the role of rare-earth permanent magnet phases and motors.
Recently the use of lead is being called into question by some policy makers. To provide a firm metallurgical background on its crucial role in the Circular Economy, the EU ETN SOCRATES team has just published a new Policy Brief.
Within the EU REMAGHIC project, KU Leuven developed a process to recover yttrium and europium from a mixed oxide obtained by the processing of lamp phosphor waste based on solvent extraction with undiluted thiocyanate ionic liquids.
In the framework of ETN REDMUD, an integrated process was developed by KU Leuven and RWTH Aachen to selectively recover Fe and REEs from slags produced during smelting of bauxite residue. The work is published in Hydrometallurgy.
Researchers at SIM² KU Leuven & VVSG investigated the circularity of the household metal packaging cycle in Flanders. They found remarkable discrepancies between experimental (sorting) data and reported literature data.
Joren van Stee is doing his PhD at SIM² KU Leuven in the research group of Prof. Tom Van Gerven. His topic is solvent extraction in milliflow systems. Find out more about Joren van Stee and his work in this new SIM² interview.
Metals in spent samarium-cobalt magnet can be recovered by oxidative dissolution of metals in trichloride ionic liquids, followed by metal removal from the leachate with a series of stripping steps. The ionic liquids can be reused for next cycles after regeneration.
KU Leuven Institute for Sustainable Metals and Minerals – Kasteelpark Arenberg 44 – Leuven 3001, Belgium
SIM² KU Leuven is the new KU Leuven Institute on Sustainable Metals and Minerals, one of the 4 flagship KU Leuven Institutes. SIM² mission is to develop, organise and implement problem-driven, science-deep research and future-oriented education, contributing to the environmentally friendly production and recycling of metals, minerals and engineered materials, supporting the transition to a climate-friendly, circular-economy.