Abstract
The current study investigates the energy consumption and the corresponding global warming potential (GWP) of tellurium recovery from multimetal solution by the use of a tailored electrochemical recovery approach based on electrodeposition-redox replacement (EDRR). A three-electrode cell was used to recover Te from synthetically prepared pregnant leach solution similar to the PLS of leached Doré slag (30% aqua regia, [Cu] = 3.9 g/L, [Bi] = 4.6 g/L, [Fe] = 1.4 g/L, and [Te] = 100–500 ppm). The enrichment of Te on the electrode (with 100 EDRR cycles) had a calculated global warming potential of 3.7 CO2 -eqv from a solution with 500 ppm Te based on a Finnish energy mix. In comparison, a decrease of Te concentration to 100 ppm increased the corresponding environmental impact to 16.9 CO2 -eqv. Overall, GWP was shown to be highly dependent on the geographical area, i.e. the dominating energy production methods.
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Acknowledgements
This work has been financed and supported by the “GoldTail” (Grant 319691, PH, MR, and BW) and “NoWASTE” (Grant 297962, KY and ML) projects funded by Academy of Finland. The research also made use of the Academy of Finland funded “RawMatTERS Finland Infrastructure” (RAMI) based at Aalto University.
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Halli, P., Rinne, M., Wilson, B.P., Yliniemi, K., Lundström, M. (2021). Environmental Aspects of the Electrochemical Recovery of Tellurium by Electrochemical Deposition-Redox Replacement (EDRR). In: Azimi, G., et al. Rare Metal Technology 2021. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65489-4_7
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