On November 29, the Hunan Institute of Science and Technology Information organized a scientific and technological achievement evaluation meeting to evaluate two results completed by CRIMM: a collaborative metallurgical technology for polymetallic nodules and cobalt-rich crusts, and a hydrogen reduction and hydrometallurgical smelting technology for polymetallic nodules. Professor Chai Liyuan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and vice president of Central South University, served as head of the expert review panel. Li Maolin, Party committee secretary and chairman of the institute, met with Academician Chai and the experts, and institute general manager and deputy Party committee secretary Zhuo Xiaojun attended the meeting.
The meeting was chaired by Liu Miao, director of the science and technology novelty search center of the Hunan Institute of Science and Technology Information. Academician Chai Liyuan and the experts questioned and discussed the results. The evaluation committee unanimously concluded that both the collaborative metallurgical technology for polymetallic nodules and cobalt-rich crusts and the hydrogen reduction and hydrometallurgical smelting technology for polymetallic nodules have reached an internationally leading level.
Both technological achievements are projects under China’s ocean program of research and development of international seabed area resources, and mainly provide a strategic reserve of key smelting technology for the development and utilization of deep-sea mineral resources.
The collaborative metallurgical technology for polymetallic nodules and cobalt-rich crusts makes full use of a single set of equipment and a single process to achieve short-flow clean smelting, which can significantly reduce investment and operating costs, raise the recovery rates of manganese, copper, cobalt and nickel, and produce manganese-rich slag meeting quality specifications.
The hydrogen reduction and hydrometallurgical smelting technology for polymetallic nodules uses green hydrogen as the reducing agent for the first time; the reduction temperature is low and the process yields a reduced material amenable to low-acid leaching, cutting energy use and carbon emissions. The leach solution undergoes nickel-cobalt co-extraction, achieving selective solvent-extraction separation of nickel and cobalt from manganese, calcium and magnesium, with good application prospects.
The two technological achievements can effectively reduce the investment and risk of resource development, and are of great significance for the future green, low-carbon, efficient and low-cost commercial development of polymetallic mineral resources in the international seabed area.
