Mineral carbonation for global warming mitigation and concurrent nickel and cobalt extraction from laterites

Both global warming and increasing supply of nickel and cobalt are urgently world-wide issues to be addressed. Mineral carbonation is a promising method to permanently store greenhouse gas CO2 into stable mineral carbonates but energy-intensive requirements and low-value products limit the successful application. Meanwhile, with the increasing demand on global nickel and cobalt supply for electrical vehicles and gradual decrease of nickel sulphides deposit, it becomes more important to extract nickel and cobalt from dominant laterites of nickel resources. However, poor selectivity and hazardous wastes detrimentally affect surrounding environments and communities. In fact, these two global issues can be potentially addressed in an integrated process by utilizing mineral carbonation to concurrently and selectively extract nickel and cobalt from laterites. This project is to develop an innovative and environmentally-friendly process which can selectively extract nickel and cobalt extraction from laterites for industries and also simultaneously sequester CO2 for global warming mitigation.

Faculty Supervisor:

David Dreisinger

Student:

Fei Wang

Partner:

LeadFX

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

University:

University of British Columbia

Program: