Relevance on the Recovery of High Economic Value Elements and Potential of Ionic Liquids

abstract

The increasing demand for critical raw materials, along with the increasing need of making the related industrial processes sustainable, highlights the importance of obtaining them from secondary or alternative sources. Lithium, cobalt, and nickel, as well as other critical elements (platinum, palladium, gallium, germanium, indium, and niobium), are present in wastewaters of industries using emerging technologies, which should be recovered due to their high economic value while fulfilling the circular economy concept. In this field, ionic liquids (ILs) have gained increased interest as extraction solvents and materials due to their unique properties, namely, the possibility of different cation-anion combinations that allow to improve selectivity and extraction/sorption efficiency for critical elements. Moreover, ionic liquids regeneration may be possible, representing an additional economic advantage. In this book chapter, it is provided the state of the art on the application of ILs in the recovery of high economic value elements from aqueous matrices. It should be remarked that despite its relevance, to date the ionic liquids feasibility has not been evaluated under realistic industrial wastewater conditions (element concentrations, sorption time, composition of multi-element systems).

authors

Almeida, J. C.; Cardoso, C. E. D.; Trindade, T.; Freire, M. G.; Pereira, E.

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