Mineral Loop

Mineral waste, which constitute by far the most important mass of waste, are currently very little recycled and mainly put in landfills. Their recycling is currently economically difficult, notably because of the low value of the by-products and the cost of transport.

To overcome this problem, the Mineral LOOP project, funded by the Walloon Region, aims to design, develop, install, and operate a pilot plant for the transformation of mineral wastes / by-products into higher value-added products. To achieve this, the Mineral LOOP project will develop innovative solutions in mineral waste pre-conditioning techniques, carbonation reaction processes and post-treatment processes.

The project in a step wise approach will address:

• A first stage will identify, characterize, and select the potential mineral waste / by-product streams. This stage will also evaluate the need and develop pre-conditioning treatments to optimize the carbonation process. Development and optimization of the carbonation processes and post-treatments to meet higher added-value products are also part of this first stage.
• A second stage will scale-up the results from the previous stage into a first demonstration plant that will process mineral waste / by-product streams and valorize higher added-value products. These products will be used in, among others, construction applications

Throughout the project, LCA analyses will validate the options chosen to demonstrate positive results in terms of environmental impact reduction of the processed mineral waste / by-product streams.