News

Prof. Koen Binnemans (SOLVOMET) has obtained ERC funding for developing a novel (solvometallurgical) concept for battery-grade refining of lithium. Binnemans’ SOLVOLi project is one of 55 newly awarded ERC Proof of Concept Grants.

SOLVOMET/SIM² KU Leuven researchers developed a novel solvometallurgical approach to recover cobalt from Li-ion battery cathode materials. This work was supported by EU H2020 CROCODILE and published in the journal Green Chemistry.

A research paper by EU MSCA-ETN SOCRATES researchers was applauded as a 2020 HOT Green Chemistry article. In this paper the authors developed novel methods for selective gold extraction from hydrometallurgical solutions.

SIM² KU Leuven/SOLVOMET researchers studied how a variation of the halide extraction medium affects the separation of precious and base metals using an undiluted ionic liquid. The work was published in ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng.

In the first official SIM² interview on the KU Leuven website, SIM² Director Peter Tom Jones explains the new KU Leuven Institute for Metals & Minerals’ view on the Circular Economy, against the background of the Corona pandemic.

SIM² KU Leuven researchers have developed a new solvometallurgical extraction process to produce copper from sulphidic copper ore minerals (e.g. chalcopyrite), allowing to reduce the eco-footprint of primary copper production.

SIM² KU Leuven – SOLVOMET researchers have developed a novel solvent extraction system to remove magnesium from lithium-rich solutions, allowing a major reduction of the eco-footprint of lithium recovery from brines.

The KU Leuven Institute for Sustainable Metals and Minerals (SIM² KU Leuven v2.0) is up and running. Peter Tom Jones presents the status quaestionis and proudly launches SIM²’s – thermodynamically-proof – Circular Economy scheme.

“The Missing Link of the Circular Economy 2.0” video shows why the waste of the past cannot be consigned to oblivion. A comprehensive Circular Economy vision should, therefore, find answers for Europe’s 500,000+ landfills.

How feasible is the transition to a climate-neutral economy (European Green Deal) in terms of the availability of the required (critical) metals? During the March 12 Seminar in Brussels an expert panel tried to provide answers.