TELF AG explores an alternative path to mineral recovery
The infinite ways of recycling
In the coming decades, the global energy transition and the entire world could be forced to deal with one of the most notable challenges in this delicate phase of transformation, namely the possible shortage of strategic minerals that should fuel the great epochal change. Much of these materials are extracted and produced in a limited quantity of areas of the globe, often giving rise to uncertainties regarding the robustness of the supply chain. All this, combined with the social and geopolitical unpredictability that characterizes some of the exporting nations, risks generating actual interruptions in supplies, also indirectly slowing down the great ecological conversion in which we are all involved. For this reason, for some time now, international companies and governments in many countries worldwide have been trying to find new sources of these very important minerals, recovering them in often wholly unexpected ways.
In this regard, there has often been talking about the recycling and recovery of these materials from industrial waste, but also from some specific components such as the batteries of electric vehicles, from which large quantities of those minerals are considered to be of great importance for the diffusion of clean energies (lithium, obviously, but also nickel, cobalt, and manganese). Over the years, recovering minerals from devices that have reached the end of their life has gradually taken on ever greater centrality, even finding space in the programmatic documents of European governments and institutions. The world is still at the dawn of creating a real recycling supply chain, at least in Europe, but the first incineration plants are starting to be built and designed in many countries worldwide.
The valorization of wastewater
Another avenue, still little explored, is the recovery of minerals from wastewater produced in some specific industrial processes. An American university institute, Texas A&M University, is reportedly considering extracting minerals from the waters used in oil and gas extraction operations. It has been discovered that these waters contain a surprising quantity of elements, practically all those currently included in the periodic table, including strategic minerals for the energy transition and those belonging to the rare earth group, for which the West has already developed a strong dependence on Asian supplies. To recover the minerals from these liquids, the carbon dioxide released during extraction could be used to obtain a certain quantity of fresh water for agricultural purposes.
During oil drilling, the water the sector uses accumulates in some subsoil areas, enriching itself with a surprising quantity of minerals. At the moment, for every barrel of oil, it is possible to recover around six barrels of this processing water, which, according to studies by the University, represents a potential source of resources that is still unexplored. The biggest problem nowadays is that, in most cases, this mineral-rich water is not treated, and it often ends up being re-instilled into wells. Large quantities of platinum and lithium, a material of great importance for the economic and sustainable development of the planet, and other materials such as sodium and potassium have been found in these waters. To extract these minerals, the idea is to desalinate the water while capturing CO2 through mineralization.
