Environmentalist approach in chemical metallurgy: Solvometallurgy

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Kurtulan C. C., Kaplan S. S., Guloglu E., ORHAN G., Gurmen S., Sonmez M. S.

JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE OF GAZI UNIVERSITY, vol.39, no.4, pp.2643-2654, 2024 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus, TRDizin)

Abstract

Purpose: The primary objective of this study is to review scientific studies dealing with solvometallurgicalextraction. Mainly, studies are categorized into two different groups: extraction from primary raw materials,and extraction from secondary raw materials. Theory and Methods: The use of metals and minerals directly affect, and generally name the related centurylike stone or bronze ages. In that perspective, extractive metallurgy is at the heart of mankind from verybeginning of life. It starts refining the metals with fire, and today those methods have changed, and improvedbut it is still at the heart of modern life. Results: Water based methods have been developed at the beginning of 20th century due to some problemssuch as decreasing ore grades, and high purity metal requirements. Hydrometallurgy achieved to overcomethose difficulties. However, it has some negative impacts on environment like water consumption, and wastes produced. Conclusion: Rare Earth Elements (REE) ore, copper ore, mining wastes, spent lithium-ion batteries, andNdFeB magnets are examples of raw materials used in solvometallurgical extraction. High selectivity, betterseparation efficiency can be given as solvometallurgical extraction advantages over traditional methods.Furthermore, the use of recyclable chemicals is one of the biggest advantages of this newly developed method.