PROCESS SIMULATION OF NICKEL LATERITES TECHNOLOGY

• Main Author: Saffa Chairunnisa, Aimee
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/67383
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Nickel is a valuable resource for the production of stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries. Around 60% of the world's industrial nickel is produced from nickel sulfide deposits, whereas the rest comes from nickel laterite deposits. However, global nickel sulfide reserves are currently suffering a depletion that may lead to a nickel crisis. On the other hand, Indonesia has abundant resources of nickel laterites ore, approximately 11 billion ton of nickel resources. The nickel laterites ore are spread in Sulawesi and Maluku. In order to utilize and improve the downstream processes of nickel laterites ore in Indonesia, existing processing technologies will be further researched to assess the efficiency of producing nickel from laterite ores. Thus, it will be beneficial to simulate an integrated nickel laterites production processing routes and assess its technoeconomic feasibility. This research aims to integrate existing processing technologies by simulating the production of nickel laterites to the raw materials of cathode battery. Previous studies have done process simulations for nickel laterites ores, but through pyrometallurgical methods. By conducting a process simulation of nickel laterites though HPAL method, the technoeconomic feasibility of the whole nickel laterite as well as the optimal process conditions can be obtained. Hence, key challenges and areas of improvement from the upstream to the downstream process routes can be determined. The process simulation of nickel laterite ores into NiSO4 will be created in Aspen Plus Software. While the available process conditions and their effects to the nickel recovery are determined in FactSage and HSC Chemistry Software. Variations in the ore composition as well as the temperature and pressure of the leaching process will be made to analyse its effects on the recovery of NiSO4 from nickel laterites ore.