Dr Eng. Michał Drzazga from the Łukasiewicz – Institute of Non-Ferrous Metals in Gliwice was granted the Scientist of the Future 2021 award in the category “Exact and technical sciences for an innovative future”. He was awarded for the research project “Innovative technology of germanium recovery from the waste of Polish zinc metallurgy”.
The aim of the project is to develop a technology for the recovery of germanium from domestic waste materials that meets the ecological and economic requirements. Germanium has not been recovered in Poland so far and finding a convenient source of this metal, as well as the development of appropriate technology, has been a challenge for Polish hydro and pyrometallurgists for years.
The proposed technology consists of two main stages – obtaining the pre-concentrate and its enrichment. The final result will be a commercial germanium concentrate containing a minimum of 10 percent Ge – i.e. over 500 times more than in input semi-finished products and waste materials.
