IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i2p628-d726290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Application of Ionic Liquids for the Recycling and Recovery of Technologically Critical and Valuable Metals

Author

Listed:
  • Grace Inman

    (Ames Laboratory, Department of Energy U.S., Critical Materials Institute, Ames, IA 50011-3020, USA)

  • Ikenna C. Nlebedim

    (Ames Laboratory, Department of Energy U.S., Critical Materials Institute, Ames, IA 50011-3020, USA)

  • Denis Prodius

    (Ames Laboratory, Department of Energy U.S., Critical Materials Institute, Ames, IA 50011-3020, USA)

Abstract

Population growth has led to an increased demand for raw minerals and energy resources; however, their supply cannot easily be provided in the same proportions. Modern technologies contain materials that are becoming more finely intermixed because of the broadening palette of elements used, and this outcome creates certain limitations for recycling. The recovery and separation of individual elements, critical materials and valuable metals from complex systems requires complex energy-consuming solutions with many hazardous chemicals used. Significant pressure is brought to bear on the improvement of separation and recycling approaches by the need to balance sustainability, efficiency, and environmental impacts. Due to the increase in environmental consciousness in chemical research and industry, the challenge for a sustainable environment calls for clean procedures that avoid the use of harmful organic solvents. Ionic liquids, also known as molten salts and future solvents, are endowed with unique features that have already had a promising impact on cutting-edge science and technologies. This review aims to address the current challenges associated with the energy-efficient design, recovery, recycling, and separation of valuable metals employing ionic liquids.

Suggested Citation

  • Grace Inman & Ikenna C. Nlebedim & Denis Prodius, 2022. "Application of Ionic Liquids for the Recycling and Recovery of Technologically Critical and Valuable Metals," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-29, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:2:p:628-:d:726290
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/2/628/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/2/628/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Leidy Rendón-Castrillón & Margarita Ramírez-Carmona & Carlos Ocampo-López & Luis Gómez-Arroyave, 2023. "Bioleaching Techniques for Sustainable Recovery of Metals from Solid Matrices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-32, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:2:p:628-:d:726290. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.