Summary

The LiquidMining project, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) within the framework of the 8th Energy Research Programme, focuses on the recovery of critical metals from industrial and natural waters. Within the project, metal-bearing waters are systematically analyzed, a secondary raw materials map is developed, and economic potentials are assessed. In parallel, various extraction and processing technologies are developed and evaluated and, together with industrial partners, scaled up to pilot-plant level. Subsequently, a modular pilot facility is constructed to enable practice-oriented demonstration. The overall objective is to comprehensively exploit the ecological and economic potential of raw material recovery from metal-containing waters, thereby supporting a sustainable, circular-oriented raw materials strategy for Germany and Europe.

Problem Statement

Global demand for critical metals has increased significantly over recent years and is expected to continue rising. Critical metals are defined as materials that are of high economic importance while simultaneously exhibiting a high supply risk. These include lithium and rare earth elements, as well as metals such as germanium, indium, and cobalt. They are key components of modern battery storage systems, high-performance magnets, wind energy installations, and photovoltaic modules, and are therefore indispensable for key technologies underpinning digitalization as well as the mobility and energy transitions.

At the same time, Germany is highly dependent on imports of critical metals. This reliance on supply chains outside the European Union has increasingly proven to be problematic in recent years, as security of supply cannot always be guaranteed and supply relationships are in some cases subject to the political interests of supplier countries. Domestic production of raw materials is minimal, as metallic primary resources are either not available in sufficient deposits or are not extracted for economic reasons.

Proposed Solution

A key contribution to addressing this challenge lies in unlocking previously untapped secondary raw material potentials. As an industrialized country, Germany hosts numerous processes in which critical metals are processed and may enter wastewater streams. Although such waters possess considerable raw material potential, the recovery of many elements has so far been scarcely investigated, partly due to the absence of regulatory threshold values, and is therefore often not taken into account in existing material and recycling cycles.

In addition, natural waters such as thermal and mine waters may contain elevated concentrations of metals and thus represent a further potential source. However, their chemical composition is often only partially characterized, as analyses are typically limited to a small number of prescribed parameters. As a result, the actual potential of these natural resource sources also remains largely unexploited.

Project Description

Together with the industrial partners GEOS Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH and Leiblein GmbH, as well as the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the University of Augsburg is conducting research on the development of previously untapped raw material potentials of critical metals in natural and anthropogenic waters. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) within the framework of the Federal Government’s 8th Energy Research Programme under the funding area “Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy.”

The project is based on a systematic assessment of waters in Germany containing potentially valuable metals. To this end, industrial wastewaters are analyzed, a model-based secondary raw materials map is developed, and complemented by the development of an evaluation tool for calculating revenue potentials resulting from metal recovery. This approach enables the identification of industries and metal types for which particularly high benefits from recovery can be expected. In parallel, various extraction and processing technologies are examined with regard to their technical and economic suitability. Promising approaches are subsequently scaled up to pilot-plant scale in collaboration with the project partners. The aim is to establish processes that are both efficient and flexible and can be applied to different types of waters and metal concentrations. The insights gained feed into the development of a modular pilot plant, which enables practical testing under real-world conditions and simultaneously serves as a demonstrator for industrial applications. This is followed by an evaluation of the economic viability, energy consumption, and environmental compatibility of the modular LiquidMining process.

Project Objective

Through the combination of scientific analysis, technical implementation, and practice-oriented demonstration, the LiquidMining project comprehensively investigates both the ecological and economic potentials of recovering critical metals from natural and anthropogenic waters. In doing so, the project makes an important contribution to a sustainable, circular-oriented raw materials strategy in Germany and Europe.

Project Partners