Projet REDMUD (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Doctoral Networks
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

To tackle its (critical) raw material dependency, Europe needs comprehensive strategies based on sustainable primary mining, substitution and recycling. Freshly produced flows and stocks of landfilled industrial residues such as mine tailings, non-ferrous slag and bauxite residue (BR) can provide major amounts of critical metals and, concurrently, minerals for low-carbon building materials. The European Training Network for Zero-Waste Valorisation of Bauxite Residue (REDMUD) therefore targets the vast streams of new and stockpiled BR in the EU-28. BR contains several critical metals, is associated with a substantial management cost, whereas spills have led to major environmental incidents, including the Ajka disaster in Hungary. To date, zero-waste valorisation of BR is not occurring yet. The creation of a zero-waste BR valorisation industry in Europe urgently requires skilled scientists and engineers, who can tackle the barriers to develop fully closed-loop environmentally-friendly recovery flow sheets. REDMUD trains 15 researchers in the S/T of bauxite residue valorisation, with emphasis on the recovery of Fe, Al, Ti and rare earths (incl. Sc) while valorising the residuals into building materials. An intersectoral and interdisciplinary collaboration of EU-leading institutes and scientists has been established, which covers the full value chain, from BR to recovered metals and new building materials. Research challenges include the development of efficient extraction of Fe, Al, Ti and rare earths (incl. Sc) from distinct (NORM classified) BRs and the preparation of new building materials with higher than usual Fe content. By training the researchers in pyro-, hydro- and ionometallurgy, electrolysis, rare-earth extraction and separation technology, inorganic polymer and cement chemistry, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), NORM aspects and characterisation, they become the much needed scientists and engineers for the growing European critical raw materials industry.

Mots clés : bauxite residue, red mud, rare earths, critical raw materials, industrial waste residues, aluminium

Participants :
- Mytilinaios anonimi etaireia (Grèce) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 484773.84 €
- Tasman metals ab (Suède) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
- University of Tartu (Estonie) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 226264.68 €
- University of Patras (Grèce) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Suède) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 263659.32 €
- Bay Zoltán Foundation for Applied Research (Hongrie) — Partner, organization partner, Recherche, subvention : 0.0 €
- National Technical University of Athens (Grèce) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 484773.84 €
- Meab chemie technik gmbh (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 249216.48 €
- University of Aveiro (Portugal) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
- RWTH Aachen University (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 498432.96 €
- KU Leuven (Belgique) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 1002240.0 €
- University of Helsinki (Finlande) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 269145.36 €
- Titan Cement (Greece) (Grèce) — Partner, beneficiary, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 242386.92 €