Liquid Copper and Iron Production from Chalcopyrite, in the Absence of Oxygen
Name
metals-12-01440-v2.pdf
Size
5.46 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4f201537b3ccb060d3cfb2b79aeb76b9
Author(s)
Daehn, Katrin E.
Stinn, Caspar
Rush, Lucas
Benderly-Kremen, Ethan
Wagner, Mary Elizabeth
Boury, Charles
Chmielowiec, Brian
Gutierrez, Carolina
Allanore, Antoine
Date Issued
August 29, 2022
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Citation
Metals 12 (9): 1440 (2022)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Clean energy infrastructure depends on chalcopyrite: the mineral that contains 70% of the world’s copper reserves, as well as a range of precious and critical metals. Smelting is the only commercially viable route to process chalcopyrite, where the oxygen-rich environment dictates the distribution of impurities and numerous upstream and downstream unit operations to manage noxious gases and by-products. However, unique opportunities to address urgent challenges faced by the copper industry arise by excluding oxygen and processing chalcopyrite in the native sulfide regime. Through electrochemical experiments and thermodynamic analysis, gaseous sulfur and electrochemical reduction in a molten sulfide electrolyte are shown to be effective levers to selectively extract the elements in chalcopyrite for the first time. We present a new process flow to supply the increasing demand for copper and byproduct metals using electricity and an inert anode, while decoupling metal production from fugitive gas emissions and oxidized by-products.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.3390/met12091440
