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Utilization of waste materials for extraction of strategic metals: a biogeochemical approach
Örebro University, School of Science and Technology.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7845-6495
2017 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

Worldwide the modern society produces vast amounts of waste materials containing strategic and valuable metals. Some of them are of substantial economic or environmental significance if controlled recovery of metals can be performed or if uncontrolled release to the environment occurs.

By cultivating Agrostis capillaris on historical sulfidic mine waste the leachate composition can be altered and its volume reduced. In combination with additives such as bark compost and water works granules the concentration of several hazardous metals decreased significantly already after eight weeks. Limited actions can therefore be used to decrease the environmental impact from such waste.

Shale in general contains considerable amounts of strategic metals. If naturally occurring microorganisms are provided with a source of nutrients, increased mobilization of strategic metals can be obtained. By using wood chips as the nutrient source the mobilization of vanadium and uranium increased significantly. Highest mobilization efficiency was observed when the carbon source was put on top of the shale.

Analysis of strategic metals is often performed by argon plasma techniques such as ICP-QMS. However, the use of argon increases the analytical costs. If isotopic information is not needed and slightly higher uncertainties can be accepted, several strategic metals can successfully be quantified by the nitrogen plasma based MP AES. The analytical cost can then be cut with more than 99%.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Örebro: Örebro University , 2017. , p. 79
Series
Örebro Studies in Environmental Science, ISSN 1650-6278 ; 17
Keywords [en]
biogeochemistry, ICP-QMS, MP AES, strategic metals, vanadium, uranium, mine waste, steel slag, shale residues
National Category
Environmental Sciences
Research subject
Enviromental Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-53960ISBN: 978-91-7529-174-1 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-53960DiVA, id: diva2:1056156
Public defence
2017-02-17, Örebro universitet, Hörsalen, Musikhögskolan, Fakultetsgatan 1, Örebro, 10:15 (Swedish)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2016-12-14 Created: 2016-12-14 Last updated: 2024-01-16Bibliographically approved
List of papers
1. Conditioning sulfidic mine waste for growth of Agrostis capillaris - impact on solution chemistry
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Conditioning sulfidic mine waste for growth of Agrostis capillaris - impact on solution chemistry
2014 (English)In: Environmental Science and Pollution Research, ISSN 0944-1344, E-ISSN 1614-7499, Vol. 21, no 11, p. 6888-6904Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Contamination of the environment due to mining and mineral processing is an urgent problem worldwide. It is often desirable to establish a grass cover on old mine waste since it significantly decreases the production of leachates. To obtain sustainable growth, it is often necessary to improve several properties of the waste such as water-holding capacity, nutrient status, and toxicity. This can be done by addition of organic materials such as wood residues, e. g., compost. In this study, we focus on the solution chemistry of the leachates when a substrate containing historic sulfidic mine waste mixed with 30 % (volume) bark compost is overgrown by Agrostis capillaris. The pot experiments also included other growth-promoting additives (alkaline material, mycorrhiza, and metabolizable carbon) to examine whether a more sustainable growth could be obtained. Significant changes in the plant growth and in the leachates composition were observed during 8 weeks of growth. It was concluded that in this time span, the growth of A. capillaris did not affect the composition of the leachates from the pots. Instead, the composition of the leachates was determined by interactions between the bark compost and the mine waste. Best growth of A. capillaris was obtained when alkaline material and mycorrhiza or metabolizable carbon was added to the substrate.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2014
Keywords
Agrostis capillaris, Mine waste, Bark compost, Leachate composition
National Category
Earth and Related Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-37809 (URN)10.1007/s11356-014-2600-x (DOI)000336371000012 ()2-s2.0-84901248901 (Scopus ID)
Funder
EU, FP7, Seventh Framework Programme, 226870
Available from: 2014-10-17 Created: 2014-10-17 Last updated: 2025-02-07Bibliographically approved
2. Impact of organic carbon on the leachability of vanadium, manganese, iron and molybdenum from shale residues
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Impact of organic carbon on the leachability of vanadium, manganese, iron and molybdenum from shale residues
2015 (English)In: Minerals Engineering, ISSN 0892-6875, E-ISSN 1872-9444, Vol. 75, p. 100-109Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

From 1942 to the 1966, oil was produced by pyrolysis of shale, in Kvarntorp, Sweden. This generated some 40 million m3 of metal rich pyrolyzed shale and discarded fines that were piled on site with its original metal content almost intact. The present study focuses on the leaching of vanadium, manganese, iron and molybdenum from fines after addition of wood chips and steel slag, in outdoor 1 m3 reactor systems at low liquid to solid ratio, in order to evaluate the potential environmental impact and recovery of the elements from the leachates. Seasonal variations were observed, with increased leaching during peak summer. For vanadium and molybdenum, high addition of wood chips decreased the leaching, probably due to adsorption. Manganese showed the opposite behavior while leaching of iron was almost independent of the amount of wood chips. Depending on the systems, up to 2200 μg L-1 vanadium, 90 μg L-1 molybdenum, 25 mg L-1 manganese and 500 mg L-1 iron was found in the aqueous phase. Applied to the 40 million m3 pile, the annual leaching of those elements may reach 14 ton, 0.6 ton, 200 ton and 2400 ton, respectively.

Keywords
Bioleaching; Environmental; Leaching; Pollution
National Category
Environmental Sciences
Research subject
Enviromental Science
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-41168 (URN)10.1016/j.mineng.2014.10.018 (DOI)000353861300015 ()2-s2.0-84927124587 (Scopus ID)
Note

Funding Agency:

Faculty of Economics, Science and Technology at Örebro University

Available from: 2015-01-13 Created: 2015-01-13 Last updated: 2024-01-16Bibliographically approved
3. Release of uranium from weathered black shale in meso-scale reactor systems: first year of data
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Release of uranium from weathered black shale in meso-scale reactor systems: first year of data
2014 (English)In: Uranium - Past and Future Challenges: Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology / [ed] Merkel Broder J., Arab Alireza, Springer, 2014, p. 139-146Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2014
National Category
Earth and Related Environmental Sciences
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-37820 (URN)978-3-319-11059-2 (ISBN)
Conference
Uranium Mining and Hydrogeology 7, 2014, Freiberg, Germany
Available from: 2014-10-17 Created: 2014-10-17 Last updated: 2025-02-07Bibliographically approved
4. Comparison of MP AES and ICP-MS for analysis of principal and selected trace elements in nitric acid digests of sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Comparison of MP AES and ICP-MS for analysis of principal and selected trace elements in nitric acid digests of sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
2015 (English)In: Talanta: The International Journal of Pure and Applied Analytical Chemistry, ISSN 0039-9140, E-ISSN 1873-3573, Vol. 135, p. 124-132Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The use of nitrogen as plasma gas for microwave plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (MP AES) is an interesting development in analytical science since the running cost can be significantly reduced in comparison to the inductively coupled argon plasma. Here, we evaluate the performance of the Agilent 4100 MP AES instrument for the analysis of principal metals (Ca, K, Mg, and Na), lithogenic metals (Al, Fe, and Mn) and selected trace metals (As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mo, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn) in nitric acid plant digests. The digests were prepared by microwave-assisted dissolution of dry plant material from sunflower (Helianthus annuus) in concentrated nitric acid. Comparisons are made with analysis of the same solutions with ICP-MS (Agilent 7500cx) using the octopole reaction system (ORS) in the collision mode for As, Fe, and V.

The limits of detection were usually in the low μg L-1 range and all principal and lithogenic metals were successfully determined with the MP AES and provided almost identical results with the ICP-MS. The same applies for the selected trace metals except for As, Co and Mo where the concentrations were below the detection limit with the MP AES. For successful analysis we recommend that (i) only atom lines are used, (ii) ionization is minimized (e.g. addition of CsNO3) and (iii) the use of internal standards should be considered to resolve spectral interferences.

Keywords
Digestion; ICP-MS; Macro and trace elements; MP AES
National Category
Chemical Sciences
Research subject
Chemistry
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-41166 (URN)10.1016/j.talanta.2014.12.015 (DOI)000349730700018 ()25640135 (PubMedID)2-s2.0-84921468749 (Scopus ID)
Note

Funding Agencies:

Faculty of Economics, Science and Technology at Örebro Universitet, Sweden

Foundation for Polish Science, International PhD Projects Program

EU European Regional Development Fund MPD/2009-3/5

Available from: 2015-01-13 Created: 2015-01-13 Last updated: 2024-01-16Bibliographically approved
5. Release of vanadium from LD-slag by exposure to ARD
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Release of vanadium from LD-slag by exposure to ARD
2010 (English)In: Mine water and innovative thinking: proceedings 2010 / [ed] Christian Wolkersdorfer, Antje Freund, Cape Breton University Press , 2010, p. 399-402Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

In abatement of acid rock drainage (ARD) slag from the Linz-Donawitz steel making process (LD-slag) provides high neutralizing capacity at low cost. A serious drawback for the use of this by-product is its high content of vanadium, which makes it a potential source of toxic vanadium species. The aim of this work was to determine the most common vanadium species, V(IV) and V(V), leached from LD-slag by artificial ARD. Capillary electrophoresis was employed to quantify the species. From the results an initial dominance of V(V) and increasing abundance of V(IV) with increasing artificial ARD L/s ratio was observed.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Cape Breton University Press, 2010
National Category
Natural Sciences
Research subject
Chemistry
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-24257 (URN)000323234800092 ()978-1-897009-47-5 (ISBN)
Conference
International Mine Water Association symposium: Mine Water and Innovative Thinking (IMWA), Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, Sep. 05-09, 2010
Available from: 2012-08-06 Created: 2012-08-06 Last updated: 2024-01-16Bibliographically approved
6. Potential use of native fungal strains for assisted uranium retention
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Potential use of native fungal strains for assisted uranium retention
Show others...
2015 (English)In: Minerals Engineering, ISSN 0892-6875, E-ISSN 1872-9444, Vol. 81, p. 173-178Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Uranium-stabilizing ligands can be useful complexing agents for uranium in aqueous solution. The discovery of novel ligand candidates for selective uranium capture in artificial and natural waters could provide scope for their use in water remediation and metal recovery from low- and high grade ores. In this study we used seven fungal strains, isolated from shale waste, to monitor the uranium retention capacity from an aqueous solution. After four weeks of incubation, suspensions containing the fungal strains were filtered, and up to 100% of the total uranium inventory was removed from a 10 mg L-1 solution. Approximately 70% of the total uranium removal is attributed to complexation and/or adsorption by particles in the malt extract and some 10% is adsorbed by the fungal biomass. The additional 20% uranium removed could be related to the excretion of fungal metabolites. From 58% to 90% of the uranium is removed within ten minutes. The formation of colloidal/particulate uranium is proposed to be controlled by organic ligands in the culture medium and organic ligands excreted by the fungi where phosphorus moieties seem to be important. Membrane fouling by the hydrocarbons is also suggested to contribute to a loss of uranium from the aqueous phase.

Keywords
Biotechnology; Environmental; Pollution; Wasteprocessing
National Category
Chemical Sciences
Research subject
Chemistry
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-46072 (URN)10.1016/j.mineng.2015.04.003 (DOI)000361253100023 ()2-s2.0-84940440497 (Scopus ID)
Note

Funding Agencies:

Academy of Economy, Science and Technology at Orebro University

Foundation of Polish Science

EU European Regional Development fund MPD/2009-3/5

Available from: 2015-10-12 Created: 2015-10-12 Last updated: 2024-01-16Bibliographically approved

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