Treatment and recovery possibilities of solid waste from mining and refining metals used in battery industry
Petrova, Polina (2021)
Diplomityö
2021
School of Energy Systems, Ympäristötekniikka
Kaikki oikeudet pidätetään.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021120859509
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2021120859509
Tiivistelmä
There is an international trend of CO2 emissions reduction and electrification of machines is one of the main parts in many countries’ strategies. However, batteries, that keep electric vehicles going, require raw materials that should be extracted from the earth. The process of mining and refining generates billions of tons of waste worldwide, creating environmental threats like water and soil pollution.
The main goal of this thesis is to identify possible uses of tailings, that were formed during metal mining. Extraction of precious materials was left out from this work, keeping focus on treatment and recovery possibilities of solid waste, that otherwise would be considered useless.
Based on the literature review, ten methods of recovering nickel and lithium tailings were found. According to the current knowledge, no cobalt tailings treatments were observed. Out of ten discovered methods, one was chosen for application on Finnish and Russian realities. Calculations showed that production of bricks from lithium mine tailings and glass wool waste has a great potential for both case countries. Monte Carlo analysis was performed to find most possible profits and prices of one brick for both Finland and Russia.
The main goal of this thesis is to identify possible uses of tailings, that were formed during metal mining. Extraction of precious materials was left out from this work, keeping focus on treatment and recovery possibilities of solid waste, that otherwise would be considered useless.
Based on the literature review, ten methods of recovering nickel and lithium tailings were found. According to the current knowledge, no cobalt tailings treatments were observed. Out of ten discovered methods, one was chosen for application on Finnish and Russian realities. Calculations showed that production of bricks from lithium mine tailings and glass wool waste has a great potential for both case countries. Monte Carlo analysis was performed to find most possible profits and prices of one brick for both Finland and Russia.