Metal recycling from Germany’s 6 million tons of slag: Functional materials such as lithium, cobalt, etc. are essential for the generation of renewable energies, e.g. in electronic components and batteries. In the course of the energy transition, prices are rising due to high demand. Recycling from slag offers a solution.
Every year, about 26 million tons of waste are incinerated in Germany, of which 6 million tons of slag remain. The fine fraction of slag, which is currently recycled in landfill construction in Germany, contains valuable raw materials such as copper, gold, iron and mineral compounds such as calcium oxide and silicon dioxide.
Research is underway at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) as part of the EMSARZEM project:
“We have developed a process that allows us to finely grind the slag and thus break it down into its components. In this way, we recover the non-ferrous metals and the iron, and the remaining mineral fraction can be used to produce cement and concrete,” explains Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Deike.
Why recycle?
Unlike many metals, however, there are as yet only a few established recycling processes for functional materials. Recycling, he says, is primarily necessary to keep materials available for renewable energy generation.
“Rising raw material prices on the markets and increased demand in the wake of the energy transition, especially for electric car batteries, make it necessary to recycle functional materials,” Deike said. “The materials are extremely finely dispersed in products but also in waste, which makes recycling more difficult.”
At the 9th RUHR Symposium at UDE on October 17, experts will advise how the valuable materials can be recovered from the relevant components. At the subsequent public sustainability talk, the recycling chain in the Ruhr region will be put under the microscope.
RUHR Symposium
The RUHR Symposium is organized by the Center for Nanoscience CENIDE and the CAR – Center Automotive Research at the UDE. Other topics of the symposium at the Fraunhofer-inHaus Center at Forsthausweg in Duisburg are the recycling of rare earths, lithium-ion batteries or permanent magnets.
As last year, the RUHR Symposium will again conclude with a public program. Interested parties can take part in a guided tour of the NETZ (NanoEnergieTechnikZentrum) at 17:30 and learn more about the circular economy in the Ruhr region at the Duisburg Sustainability Talk starting at 18:30. Registration is requested.
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