Sustainable transformation of metallic wastes from the steel industry into advanced zinc oxide

Nanomox开发了一种具有成本效益和可持续的金属氧化方法，氧化离子合成（OIS），以生产先进的无机材料。该工艺在低温（<120°C）下使用离子液体（可容易地再循环的绿色溶剂）来直接氧化金属，例如锌。初步的技术经济和可持续性分析表明，与现有技术相比，该技术提供了巨大的改进，与流行的火法冶金方法相比，可实现97%的节能。OIS工艺可以处理含金属的废物，这为钢铁制造和镀锌工业中产生的金属残留物（电弧炉粉尘、炉渣、浮渣等）的价值提升打开了大门。这些废物大多通过能源密集型火法冶金工艺回收，不符合NetZero的目标。此外，它们中的一小部分最终进入填埋场，由于填埋场的减少，填埋场越来越困难，并且代表经济损失，由于金属浸出到土壤中，具有潜在的负面环境影响。OIS方法的另一个优点是，它产生了先进的无机材料，如氧化锌，具有标准工业级的上级质量，因为颗粒形态可以控制。这些无机材料被用作其他基础和制造业的原材料，如陶瓷，油漆和轮胎。其上级品质不仅能提高最终产品的可持续性，还能显著改善现有产品的性能，并促进新技术的开发。在本项目中，我们将研究钢铁行业的富锌废水作为OIS原料的资源回收方法。这将通过将金属废物转化为先进的无机材料，如氧化锌，一种用于轮胎制造、化妆品、陶瓷和电子产品的化学品，提高钢铁工业的环境信誉和盈利能力。

Nanomox has developed a cost-effective and sustainable metal oxidation method, Oxidative Ionothermal Synthesis (OIS), to produce advanced inorganic materials. This process uses ionic liquids (green solvents that can be readily recycled) at low temperatures (<120°C) for the direct oxidation of metals, such as zinc. Preliminary techno-economic and sustainability analyses demonstrate that this technique offers enormous improvements over existing technologies as 97% energy reduction is achievable as compared to popular pyrometallurgical methods. The OIS process can treat metal-containing wastes, which opens the door to valorisation of metallic residues produced in steel manufacturing and galvanising industries (EAF dust, slags, dross, etc). Most of these wastes are recovered through energy-intensive pyrometallurgical processes, not in line with NetZero ambitions. Also, a fraction of them ends in landfill, which is increasingly more difficult due to reduction of landfill sites, and represent an economic loss, with potentially negative environmental impacts due to metal leaching into the soil.Another advantage of the OIS process is that it produces advanced inorganic materials, such as zinc oxide, of superior quality of standard industrial grade, as the particle morphology can be controlled. These inorganic materials are used as raw materials for other foundation and manufacturing industries, such as ceramics, paints, and tyres. Their superior quality not only will improve the sustainability credentials of the end-products but can lead to significant improvement of their performance in existing products and the development of new technologies.In this project, we will investigate the use of zinc-rich waste streams from the steel industry as an OIS feedstock in a resource recovery approach. This will improve the environmental credentials of the steel industry and profitability by converting metallic wastes into advanced inorganic materials, such as zinc oxide, a chemical used in tyre manufacturing, cosmetics, ceramics and electronics.