Recovering metals and minerals from waste

[Judi Lynn]

Recovering metals and minerals from waste
Date: March 14, 2014
Source: Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT)

Scarcity of clean water is one of the most serious global challenges. In its spearhead programme, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland developed energy-efficient methods for reuse of water in industrial processes and means for recovering valuable minerals and materials from waste for recycling. Rapid tools were also developed for identification of environmental pollutants.

When water and wastewater systems are developed in a comprehensive manner, it is possible to recover valuable metals and other materials and secure availability of clean water. Cleaning and treatment processes can also be linked to energy production, and the processes and urban structures designed in such a manner that wastewater treatment does not consume energy or cause extra costs.

"Wastewater treatment and waste treatment have mainly been implemented by legal necessity. Now we should modify our way of thinking so that we would be able to regard waste disposal sites and purification plants as sources or raw materials and energy. In the near future, technology has been refined far enough to allow such waste treatment plants to operate on their own," says Mona Arnold, Principal Researcher at VTT.

Recycling valuable minerals and materials

Demand has arisen for technologies capable of recovering even tiny amounts of minerals from waste flows. Recovering them from municipal or mining wastewaters requires better recovery methods than those available today. VTT has developed extraction methods for metals and minerals from waste materials. Biological extraction methods by which metals are recovered from mining, metal and recycling industry waste by utilising microbes and chemical reactions are under testing stages and they are forcasted for market uptake within the next few years.

More:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140314093654.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmatter_energy%2Fchemistry+%28Chemistry+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

[ffr]

1. Something other countries can use to model their own systems.

Awesome!

I wonder what Fox Noise Finland had to say about it.

Na, I really don't care what they might have said.