Dr Mehdi Jafarian is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Adelaoide’s Centre for Energy Technology.

He specialises in numerical and experimental thermo-fluids and process simulation. He is the lead-inventor of the solar bubble receiver/reactor and dual interconnected bubble column reactors. He received his B.S and M.S in Chemical Engineering from Shiraz University, Iran, and his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Adelaide, Australia. He is an author of more than 45 scientific peer-reviewed paper, including 38 peer-reviewed journal papers in leading international journals and 7 conference papers. He is also lead inventor of 3 patents.

Link to my page: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/mehdi.jafarian

Abstract

Integration of the Solar Hybrid Sulphur (HyS) Cycle with copper production

There is growing interest in possible pathways to cost-effectively decarbonise the production of copper, which is the third-most widely-used metal with a current global demand of 18 million metric tonnes per year. Currently, the majority of the energy required for copper processing is supplied from fossil fuels, so that typically 3.5 - 8 tonnes of CO₂ is produced per tonne of copper product. Hence there is a strong need to identify cost-effective pathways to mitigate the life-cycle CO₂ emissions associated with copper refining. One potential approach to this is to decarbonise the required fuel through the use of CO₂ neutral H₂. Moreover, the process of copper refining requires O₂, which is currently supplied via CO₂ emitting air separation units. Hybrid Sulphur (HyS) cycle is a hybrid between a high-temperature heat source, e.g. concentrated solar thermal energy, and electrolysis. Key drivers for the development of HyS are the much lower requirement for electricity together with the capacity to utilise low-cost thermal energy storage in the CST side of the cycle. In this presentation the potential for the integration of HyS and copper processing for in-situ H₂ and O₂ production will be assessed.