Chemical Engineering April 2020 - 8

nin expert Richard Gosselink
of Wageningen Food
& Biobased Research
(WUR; the Netherlands;
www.wur.nl), a partner in
the CHAPLIN program
and the project manager
for CHAPLIN TKI, the first
project that is already underway.
" Lignin is released
in enormous flows in processes
of paper production, "
explains Gosselink,
and " It remains as a residual
stream that can be
used much better than as
'burner fuel.' By adding
lignin, we can currently
green the asphalt for 50%
and produce and apply
it around 30°C less hot.
That already saves around
20% CO2 and half of fossil
fuels, " says Gosselink.
" Moreover, lignin is interesting
because, like bitumen,
it gives structure and
strength to asphalt and
fixes CO2 for a longer period
of time. "
ENERGY STORAGE
Last month, Azelio (Gothenburg,
Sweden; www.
azelio.com) completed
the installation of its
renewable-energy
storage
system at Noor Ouarzazate
solar complex in
Morocco. An inauguration
ceremony was held on
March 5, 2020, together
with the Moroccan Agency
for Sustainable Energy
(Masen; Rabat; www.
masen.ma) and invited
prominent guests.
The installation is a partial
result of a joint technical
and business development
agreement between
Azelio and Masen. A verification
of the storage will
be initiated during the
first quarter of 2020, with
commercial installations
later the same year, followed
by volume production
in 2021.
Azelio's energy-storage
system uses a phasechange
material (PCM)
heated (by the concentrated
solar thermal energy)
to just below 600°C
and liquefied in a con(Continues
on p. 10)
8
Batteryless machine-health monitor enabled by
low-power computer chips
E
veractive (Charlottesville, Va.;
www.everactive.com) has
just launched its Machine
Health Monitor (MHM) prodAccelerometer
uct
for batteryless vibration and temperature
sensing of process machinery
(photo). The MHM harvests waste
energy from small temperature differentials
(10°F or greater) and ambient
light (100 lux or greater) to power the
sensor and to transmit wireless data
continuously. The product joins Everactive's
initial product, a batteryless industrial internet
of things (IIoT) temperature sensor for steamtrap
applications.
RSSI
Everactive
Magnetometer
The batteryless sensor systems are made
possible by ultra-low-power computer chips
designed with sub-threshold circuits that operate
continuously with miniscule levels of
electricity. " There's nothing exotic about the
chip materials and manufacturing process, "
explains Brian Alessi, marketing director for
Everactive. " The ability to sense and transmit
data continuously results from the careful design
of the system as a whole, with the objective
of operating under the 'energy ceiling' for
harvested power. "
Asset sensor systems represent a critical
aspect of the trend toward digitalization and
IIoT-enabled process optimization, but the
sensors require power to detect signals and
transmit data. Managing and replacing batteries
for the number of sensors currently projected
for industrial processes presents a large
maintenance challenge. " If, as some analyses
predict, one trillion sensors were installed on
industrial assets, it would require replacing
913 million batteries daily, " says Alessi. " And
that is not sustainable, from a maintenance resource
or environmental standpoint. "
Thus far, Everactive has installed batteryless
steam-trap sensors at about a dozen sites,
and is rolling out the MHM product this month.
The devices are built to be robust, Alessi says,
with IP66 protection for dust and water, and
compliance with Class 1, Div. 2 hazardous
area requirements.
Oxidative precipitation recovers
nickel and cobalt from ore
A
n alternative method for processing
mixed nickel-cobalt hydroxide precipitate
to separate the nickel from
cobalt and manganese has been proposed
by a team from the Bandung Institute
of Technology (Bandung, Indonesia; www.itb.
ac.id), the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
(Bandung) and the University of Queensland
(Brisbane, Australia).
Most existing process plants for nickel
laterite ores use intermediate precipitation
processes to recover the nickel and cobalt
from the leach solution. The precipitation
produces an intermediate product of nickel
and cobalt, either as mixed sulfide precipitate
(MSP) or mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP),
while largely separating nickel and cobalt
from impurities such as manganese, calcium
and magnesium.
Mixed sulfite precipitation processes have
a higher selectivity for nickel and cobalt over
manganese and magnesium, resulting in a
lower level of impurities compared with mixed
hydroxide precipitation. However, the operation
of sulfide precipitation processes is relatively
expensive and complex because they
require use of hazardous hydrogen sulfide gas
at high temperatures and pressures.
The hydroxide precipitation process is,
therefore, favorable over sulfide precipitation,
especially for simpler processing plants,
because it avoids the complexity and capital
investment required to recover the nickel
and cobalt.
The new proposed method comprises a
leaching step using sulfuric acid to dissolve
the nickel and cobalt from mixed hydroxide
precipitates, and subsequently, an oxidative
precipitation step to separate the dissolved
nickel from cobalt and manganese using
ozone as the oxidant.
Leaching experiments showed that 97% of
the nickel and 96% of the cobalt can be dissolved,
while leaving 92% of the manganese in
the residue using 1 mol/L sulfuric acid solution
at 25°C, a slurry density of 100 g/L and leaching
duration of 2.5 h. The results of the oxidative
precipitation experiments showed that
complete precipitation of the dissolved cobalt
and manganese can be achieved by using
ozone as oxidant with nickel co-precipitation
of about 8.8% at 25°C, equilibrium pH of 5.0,
oxidant gas flowrate of 1 L/min and precipitation
duration of 2 h.
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
APRIL 2020
http://www.everactive.com http://www.wur.nl http://www.azelio.com http://www.itb http://www.ac.id http://www.masen.ma http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering April 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering April 2020
