Development of techniques for selective recovery of technology-critical elements from industrial wastewaters

Project ID: 
ESR09
Home institution: 
UGent
Host institution: 
TUDelft
Start date: 
Saturday, October 1, 2016
Duration: 
36 months, may be extended up to 48 months
Main supervisor(s): 
Gijs Du Laing
Cosupervisor(s): 
Tom Hennebel (UGent + Umicore)
Objectives and expected results: 

In this PhD project, strategies are developed for (selective) removal and recovery of (valuable) metals from a number of industrial wastewaters. Focus is laid on biosorption-based – and possibly also electrochemical - technologies. Biomaterials have – in comparison with classical metallurgical techniques – potential to remove lower concentrations of metals from leachates. However, to make biosorption-based processes selective as well as economically feasible, further technology development is needed. To speed up the development and valorization of these technologies, novel high throughput experimentation techniques will be used in this PhD project.

Planned secondment(s): 

month 20-22 and 30-33, testing and development of phase separation strategies in biosorption-based technologies and/or (bio)electrochemical technologies + internship (1+2 months) at Umicore (www.umicore.com) in first and last year (includes sampling different types of industrial wastewaters and to test pilot setups on site)

Financing: 
The PhD scholarship is financed according to the standards of Ghent University.
Specific entry requirements: 

the applicants should have a MSc degree in (bio)chemical engineering, environmental engineering, (analytical) chemistry or similar

Contact: 

For more information on the project, please contact Gijs Du Laing (Gijs.DuLaing@UGent.be)