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Home（https://bitri.co.bw） Mineral Beneficiation
Mineral Beneficiation
Mineral Beneficiation
In Botswana, most minerals after they are mined are exported as raw materials or semi processed. There is no value chain addition in the mineral resource. BITRI developed/has a research program that is tailored towards beneficiation of natural resources and materials including the mineral resource found in Botswana.
Our core research is in the development of “green” or environmentally friendly mineral processing technologies in beneficiation the mineral resource from a low value commodity to a high value commodity in partnership with the mining industry. The mineral beneficiation research program is divided into three thematic areas being namely, coal beneficiation (i.e. coal to liquids (XTL), base metals (BM) and platinum group metals (PGMs) beneficiation and catalysts and catalytic processes development for industrial application (CPIA).
Coal Beneficiation
Coal to liquids (XTL)
Botswana has substantial coal deposits, one of the largest untapped potential resources in the world at over 212 billion tonnes, that comprise of 3.3–5 billion tonnes of actual recoverable reserves, of which 40 million tonnes are proven reserves. The coal beneficiation project objective is towards transformation of coal into higher value commercial products such as liquid fuels and petrochemicals for the local market in Botswana and as well as for international markets. BITRI has a state-of-the-art gasification pilot plant that is bedrock of the XTL products (petrochemicals and liquid fuels) from the produced synthesis gas (syngas = CO + H₂). It is envisaged that with the abundant coal reserves Botswana has, they can be harnessed to achieve energy independence and diversify the economy.
Carbon Materials from Botswana Coal
There is a global demand of carbon materials for a plethora of industrial applications. As such coal is one of the major sources of carbon. BITRI is developing processing technologies on synthesis or production of high-value carbon materials (such as graphite, graphene, graphene oxide and carbon nanotubes from coal). The carbon materials can be used as starting materials/substrates in different industries for instance graphite is used as the anode in Li-ion batteries for EV industry and battery industry (Li ion battery industry) as well in electronics industry as a supercapacitors.
Clean Coal Technologies
The environmental concerns on the use of coal cannot be taken lightly. Thus, we see developing technologies that would either convert emissions from coal into benign but useful products or capture and storage of emissions for further processing to be critical in adding value to coal. It is critical to note that Botswana’s coal can hold/store methane in the so-called “coal bed-methane” deposits. It is in the light of this characteristic of Botswana coal and literature precedence that we embarked on the use of Botswana’s coal as adsorbent for carbon dioxide i.e. carbon sequestration. We have developed a method that uses green solvents that is subcritical and supercritical water, supercritical CO₂ and ethanol or as blends/mixtures in cleaning coal to reduce or minimize adverse effects of NOx, SOx emissions by reduction or extraction of sulfur, nitrogen species in the coal.