Practical trainings, student assistants and theses

Nowadays, the processing of secondary resources is becoming more and more important as there is a high demand of critical raw materials. Especially batteries have high amounts of the critical metals Lithium, Cobalt, Manganese and Nickel as oxides used for cathode materials, as well as graphite, which is typically used as anode material. After comminution, these valuable minerals enrich in the fine fraction < 1 mm, which is called black mass. Studies have shown that froth flotation is a suitable technique to separate graphite from the cathode active materials.
In the course of the thesis, the separation of the cathode active materials, i.e. nickel-manganese-cobalt oxides, and the anode material graphite by flotation is investigated, with special focus on the influence of ultrasonication. Flotation tests will be carried out in an Outotec GTK lab cell. The flotation cell is modified in a way that ultrasound (by means of ultrasonication) can be applied during flotation. Therefore, a suitable reagent regime and process parameters for the flotation of black mass have to be established, followed by the development of suitable parameters for ultrasound treatment for this novel cell. Additionally, ultrasound will be tested in a pre-processing step before flotation as an alternative to attritioning by means of intensive shearing. Black mass from real spent lithium-ion batteries that was formerly processed via electrohydraulic fragmentation will be used for the tests. Analysis of the flotation products is done using thermogravimetric analysis and elemental analysis.

• Field of study in process, mechanical or chemical engineering or similar
• Interest in experimental investigation
• Good written and oral communication skills in English
• Please upload a short letter of motivation stating the period of time and your current grade overview to the applicant portal

• Student thesis
• Start date: by arrangement
• We offer an innovative multidisciplinary international research environment with relevance to key issues in resource technology