Seminar Announcement: Anna Lukowiak

Data pubblicazione: 3-mag-2017 20.46.11

Announcement

Tuesday, 2 May 2017, 15:00

Sala Grande Palazzina B via alla Cascata 56/C

"Recovery of lanthanides from WEEE"

Anna Lukowiak

Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research, Polish Academy of Sciences

Wroclaw, Poland

A.Lukowiak@int.pan.wroc.pl

Abstract

Due to the demand of policies of many countries, there is a strong need to significantly reduce the number of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE; e-waste) accumulated at dump that are very dangerous for the environment. On the other hand, many crucial materials and elements can be recovered from these wastes. Rare earth metals are one of them.

This lecture will present the state of art of the topic on the basis of the recently started ERANET-LAC project RECOLA involving a consortium of Research Institutes and Universities operating in Europe and South America.

The innovative concept presented in the RECOLA project is based on development of methodologies to extract rare earths (and other metals) from e-waste in order to allow efficient waste management and reintroduction economy of secondary raw materials. The RECOLA project activity is expected to succeed in development/realization of:

- physical, chemical and mechanical processes of e-waste treatment;
- specific nanostructured materials for metals extraction and separation;
- recovered rare earth compounds, well characterized and ready for reuse.

The overall objective is therefore to change the strategic material recovery procedure in a way that will allow economic benefits without affecting the environment.

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