Pr. Prakash Venkatesan

Co-Head of 4MAT Department

PV 4MAT

prakash.venkatesan@ulb.be +32-2-650.2986
Ecole polytechnique de Bruxelles
Campus du Solbosch - CP 165/63
Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50
1050 Bruxelles

Biosketch

Prakash Venkatesan joined the 4MAT department as Professeur at the Université Libre de Bruxelles on October 2020. Prakash did his PhD with a Marie Curie fellowship in the group of Metal Production and Resource Recycling (MPRR) under the supervision of Prof. Jilt Sietsma and Prof. Yongxiang Yang at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. His PhD was focussed on developing environmentally friendly electrochemical processes to recover rare-earth elements from NdFeB magnet waste. Subsequently, he pursued a postdoc under Prof. Arjan Molat TU Delft in the field of corrosion, adhesion and interfacial delamination. He was a recipient of Erasmus Mundus scholarship to do his MSc “Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion” at UPS Toulouse, WUT Warsaw and UPJV Amiens. His MSc thesis project “Synthesis and characterization of structured cathode materials for all solid-state Lithium-Sulphur batteries” was carried out at Robert Bosch, Stuttgart. He holds a bachelor’s degree in technology (B.Tech) in Chemical and Electrochemical engineering from Central Electrochemical Research Institute, India. At 4MAT, his primary focus is on developing environmentally friendly recycling processes to recover metals from different waste streams

Teaching

Publications

Articles dans des revues avec comité de lecture

2021

Hydrometallurgical Production of Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide (EMD) from Furnace Fines

Önal, M. A. R., Panda, L., Kopparthi, P., Singh, V., Venkatesan, P., & Borra, C. R. (2021). Hydrometallurgical Production of Electrolytic Manganese Dioxide (EMD) from Furnace Fines. Minerals, 11(7), 712. doi:10.3390/min11070712

The ferromanganese (FeMn) alloy is produced through the smelting-reduction of manganese ores in submerged arc furnaces. This process generates large amounts of furnace dust that is environmentally problematic for storage. Due to its fineness and high volatile content, this furnace dust cannot be recirculated through the process, either. Conventional MnO2 production requires the pre-reduction of low-grade ores at around 900 °C to convert the manganese oxides present in the ore into their respective acid-soluble forms; however, the furnace dust is a partly reduced by-product. In this study, a hydrometallurgical route is proposed to valorize the waste dust for the production of battery-grade MnO2. By using dextrin, a cheap organic reductant, the direct and complete dissolution of the manganese in the furnace dust is possible without any need for high-temperature pre-reduction. The leachate is then purified through pH adjustment followed by direct electrowinning for electrolytic manganese dioxide (EMD) production. An overall manganese recovery rate of >90% is achieved.

https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/328445/1/doi_312089.pdf

2019

Use of iron reactive anode in electrowinning of neodymium from neodymium oxide

Abbasalizadeh, A., Seetharaman, S., Venkatesan, P., Sietsma, J., & Yang, Y. (2019). Use of iron reactive anode in electrowinning of neodymium from neodymium oxide. Electrochimica acta, 310, 146-152. doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2019.03.161

2018

Selective electrochemical extraction of REEs from NdFeB magnet waste at room temperature

Venkatesan, P., Vander Hoogerstraete, T., Hennebel, T., Binnemans, K., Sietsma, J., & Yang, Y. (2018). Selective electrochemical extraction of REEs from NdFeB magnet waste at room temperature. Green chemistry, 20(5), 1065-1073. doi:10.1039/C7GC03296J

A closed loop room temperature electrochemical process for selective recovery of REEs from NdFeB magnet waste.

Selective Extraction of Rare-Earth Elements from NdFeB Magnets by a Room-Temperature Electrolysis Pretreatment Step

Venkatesan, P., Vander Hoogerstraete, T., Binnemans, K., Sun, Z., Sietsma, J., & Yang, Y. (2018). Selective Extraction of Rare-Earth Elements from NdFeB Magnets by a Room-Temperature Electrolysis Pretreatment Step. ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 6(7), 9375-9382. doi:10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b01707

An environmentally friendly electro-oxidative approach to recover valuable elements from NdFeB magnet waste

Venkatesan, P., Sun, Z., Sietsma, J., & Yang, Y. (2018). An environmentally friendly electro-oxidative approach to recover valuable elements from NdFeB magnet waste. Separation and purification technology, 191, 384-391. doi:10.1016/j.seppur.2017.09.053
https://dipot.ulb.ac.be/dspace/bitstream/2013/328432/1/doi_312076.pdf

2017

Identification and recovery of rare-earth permanent magnets from waste electrical and electronic equipment

Lixandru, A., Venkatesan, P., Jönsson, C., Poenaru, I., Hall, B. D., Yifan, Y., Walton, A., Güth, K., Gauß, R., & Gutfleisch, O. (2017). Identification and recovery of rare-earth permanent magnets from waste electrical and electronic equipment. Waste management, 68, 482-489. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2017.07.028

Electrochemistry during efficient copper recovery from complex electronic waste using ammonia based solutions

Sun, Z., Cao, H., Venkatesan, P., Jin, W.-L., Xiao, Y., Sietsma, J., & Yang, Y. (2017). Electrochemistry during efficient copper recovery from complex electronic waste using ammonia based solutions. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 11(3), 308-316. doi:10.1007/s11705-016-1587-x

Effective treatment for electronic waste - Selective recovery of copper by combining electrochemical dissolution and deposition

Haccuria, E., Ning, P., Cao, H., Venkatesan, P., Jin, W., Yifan, Y., & Sun, Z. (2017). Effective treatment for electronic waste - Selective recovery of copper by combining electrochemical dissolution and deposition. Journal of cleaner production, 152, 150-156. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.03.112

Updated on September 13, 2023