Coordination Funds

我们今天面临的大趋势可以概括为：“作为社会的一部分，我们如何才能更有效地实现所有自然资源的可持续利用？”这个问题包括二氧化碳/能源以及原材料/回收（废物）的挑战。如今，回收技术正处于十字路口。在发达国家，回收技术已经发展到可以回收构成主要废物的那些元素和材料，但是我们缺乏技术来处理现代社会必不可少的、往往是稀有的元素，这些元素在废物流中消失了。这些稀有元素通常为产品提供特殊的功能，它们通常包含在电池、电容器、磁铁、电子电路、传感器和功能性复合结构中。大量这些元素的一个重要来源是回收金属的火法冶金过程，因为这些过程传统上以主要金属相的质量、产量和经济重要性为目标。所有非功能元素和影响材料质量的元素都被迫迁移到第二液相，即渣相。后者由氧化物、磷酸盐、碳酸盐和金属及类金属的硫化物组成。因此，炉渣成为大量有价元素的载体。这些元素的浓度很低，因此它们在凝固后消散并整合到无机基体中。矿渣的一种常见应用是作为建筑中的填料、粘合剂或地聚合物，它对回收率有正式的贡献，将所含的关键元素完全从任何材料循环中去除。PP 2315 EnAM将渣相作为关键技术元素的重要来源。当渣凝固时，它可以形成均匀的非晶结构，也可以产生晶体。这些晶体可分别视为人工矿物、矿石。因此，特定矿物的特定结晶有可能以数量级浓缩稀释元素。为了产生这些晶体，可能需要添加更多的物种，以确定矿物的形成。其形成本身取决于复杂的多组分渣系的热力学。陶瓷晶体的鉴定只是整个加工过程的第一步。它必须结晶到足够的尺寸（例如< 10 μ m）和稳定性，从剩余的有时部分无定形的固体基体中解放出来。最后，对矿粒进行机械分离，得到一种新的人工精矿。由于迄今为止的矿渣处理属于废弃物处理，我们缺乏定量描述和建模的策略和过程规律，例如破碎规律或浮选策略。综上所述，PP 2315致力于整体分离和浓缩的概念，这将使未来在材料圈中保留更多的元素。

The Megatrends we are facing today can be summarized under the question: “How can we as part of the society become more efficient to achieve a sustainable use of all the natural resources?” This question comprises the CO2/energy as well as the raw materials/recycling (waste) challenge. Nowadays, recycling technology is at the crossroads. In developed countries, recycling technologies have evolved to recover those elements and materials, which represent the main mass of waste, but we are lacking technologies to address the essential and often rare elements of a modern society, which become dissipated in the waste streams. Such rare elements provide typically a special functionality to a product, they are contained in batteries, capacitors, magnets, electronic circuits, sensors and functional composite structures in general. One significant sink for a large number of these elements are pyrometallurgical processes, recovering metals, since these processes aim traditionally at the quality, yield and economic importance of the main metal phase. All non-functional elements and those which effect the material quality are forced to migrate to the second liquid phase, the slag phase. The latter consists of oxides, phosphates, carbonates and sulfides of metals and metalloids. Thus, the slag becomes the carrier of a broad number of valuable elements. The concentration of these elements is low and therefore they are dissipated and integrated into the inorganic matrix after solidification. A common application of a slag, which contributes formally to a recycling rate, is as a filler, binder or geopolymer in construction, removing the contained critical elements entirely from any material cycle. The PP 2315 EnAM addresses the slag phase as an important source for critical technology elements. When the slag solidifies it either can form a homogeneous amorphous structure or it can generate crystals. These crystals can be seen as artificial minerals, ores respectively. Thus, a specific crystallization of defined minerals is potentially able to concentrate diluted elements by orders of magnitude. To generate these crystals, it can be required to add further species, for that defined minerals formation. The formation itself depends on the thermodynamics of the complex multi-component slag system. The identification of an EnAM-crystal is only the first step in the processing route. It has to be crystallized to a sufficient size (e.g. < 10 µm) and stability, liberated from the remaining sometimes partially amorphous solid matrix. Finally, the mechanical separation of the EnAM-particles leads to a new artificial ore concentrate. Since slag processing until now is waste processing, we are lacking strategies and process laws, e.g. breakage laws or flotation strategies for the quantitative description and modeling. In summary, the PP 2315 works on holistic separation and concentration concepts, which wil allow to keep more elements in the material circle in the future.