Unique research infrastructure for process metallurgy

The Metallurgy Pilot Plant is an important milestone in the development of the HIF. It enables intensive cooperation in the field of metallurgical process technology with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and industry at regional, national and international level at a high scientific and technical level. In order to further promote research at the HIF, the institute's site, which was developed in the 1950s for the processing of raw materials, is now to be gradually expanded into a state-of-the-art “Campus for Resource Technology and Sustainability”. In the coming years, the HIF is setting up another pilot plant for adaptive processing of complex raw materials: FlexiPlant. Together, the two research infrastructures would represent a globally unique platform for the flexible and agile processing of mineral and metal-bearing raw materials.

Facilities and equipment covering the entire spectrum of metallurgical research are available on an area of around 1,200 square meters. “The aim is to process primary and secondary raw materials efficiently and as completely as possible and to (re)use them. We want to recycle metalliferous raw materials with the help of pyro- and hydrometallurgical processes as well as physico-chemical and hydrobiological processes,” explains HIF Director Dr. Jens Gutzmer (PhD ZA). In future, the researchers will be able to use material flows of between one and 500 kilograms, allowing them to carry out experiments from laboratory to industrial scale. By combining automation and digitalization with flexible plant concepts, it should be possible for the first time to recover metals from slag or fly ash.