#ESS2209: Efficient Silver Recycling through Electrodialysis

Supervisor: Pauline Zimmermann

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Overview: Due to readily available hydropower, Norway has a leading position in the world’s metal production. Recovery of precious metals from End-of-Life products is essential to cover the increasing demand for those rare resources. For example, solar panels contain vast amounts of silver. Silver is usually used in alloys with other metals. For recycling, the alloys are dissolved in acid, and silver is recovered from aqueous solution by electrolysis. The other metals present in the solution are impurities that accumulate and decrease the efficiency of silver recycling. This project is about investigating an electrochemical process to remove impurities like Cu, Zn, and Fe from the silver solution. In Electrodialysis, ion-selective membranes are used to separate the monovalent silver ions from the divalent impurities (Cu, Zn, Fe). In this practically oriented summer job, you will perform experiments on a lab-scale Electrodialysis setup, with the aim to investigate ionic transport processes, find the most promising process conditions (current, flow rate, etc.) and evaluate the energy efficiency of the application.

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Goal: Investigate if Electrodialysis is a feasible separation method to remove impurities from silver electrowinning solution and to increase circular economy in Norway’s metal producing industry.

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Desired skills and competencies:

• Experience with lab work.
• Basic understanding of chemistry and transport phenomena.
• work independently.
• Enjoy working in a research environment with many other researchers.
• Interest in a renewable, clean future. 

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Important info: For questions about the summer job, contact pauline.zimmermann@ntnu.no