1.Introduction
The Advanced Material Processing & Mineral Economics Labs were established in 2010, at the expansion of the local industry in advanced materials used for battery applications. The researchers within this group have worked closely with Prof. Myong Jun Kim to develop processes for producing high purity materials from ores or wastes. The group also has experience in chemical speciation and process modeling of chemical systems using Stabcal and HSC (Outotec) softwares. In part of economics, our lab has process design and evaluation using massbalance. The labs now are focusing on advanced processes to recover valuable metals such as Li, Mn, etc for battery industry.
2. Research Areas
○ Modelling of chemical systems using Stabcal and HSC programs
The Stabcal software was developed by Prof. H.H.Huang of Montana Tech, UM, and has been used extensively in research to determine the speciation of various chemical equilibria. The program predicts the stability of various equilibrium systems of interest and is a useful tool for process development. The program can be used for predicting conditions for precipitation and leaching and improving the understanding of the stability of various species involved during the development of a process. The HSC software is particularly useful in predicting high temperature processes such as roasting and smelting. The modeling is particularly useful for predicting different high temperature processes involved. Both HSC and Stabcal have been used extensively in all our work on process development to optimize conditions for the process before the test work is carried out. This would minimize the amount of “guess work” during process development and allows researchers to focus on specific conditions for testing.
○ Process design and evaluation
The research group has a unique expertise in process development, design and evaluation involved in project feasibility studies. Such expertise is required during the development of novel processes that can be easily accepted and adopted by the industry. From process flowsheets develop by the researchers, engineering design and economic evaluation are carried out to determine the economic feasibility of a technology. The expertise has been built on several projects in Australia (EMD project-BHP, Elutech gold technology, UNSW, etc.) and Korea (Dong Bu Metals’ Fe-Mn fume processing for Mn recovery). The researchers are also involved in the technical and economic evaluation of several commercial projects currently conducted by KORES (Cu-Zn-Mn-Co Boleo project, Cu-magnetite Santo Domingo project), Continental Copper Ltd (Australia) for the Zambia’s Luanshya copper tailing project, and North of Australia’s Cu-Au tailing project in Dizon, the Philippines.
○ Processing of energy materials
In collaboration with the Mineral Processing and Waste Recycling Labs, the researchers have been involved in the development of processes for producing high purity Li from brines, bitterns and lepidolite ores. They have also been involved in projects on MSM production from Fe-Mn fumes..Collaboration with other research groups at the Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany; Korea Resources (KORES) Technology Centre and the Vietnam Science and Technology Institute for Mining and Metallurgy (VIMLUKI) are in place to develop processes for extracting lithium from lepidolite ores from Vietnam and Korea.
3. Research Activities(2010~Present)
○ Recovery of Mn as Manganese sulphate monohydrate (MSM) from Fe-Mn fumes (2012)
○ Development of Technology for Lithium Carbonate from domestic and Foreign
Li-bearing Resources (2010~2013)
○ Santo Domingo iron concentrate economics study (2013)
4. Contact
300-Yongbong-Dong, Buk-Gu, Gwangju, 500-757, KOREA
Chonnam National University, Energy & Resource Engineering Department
Tel +82-62-530-0462
Fax +82-62-530-0462