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Shibata-Adachi Lab
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The lab connects non-ferrous metal smelting processes to circulate metal resources.
AboutAbout the lab
Toward building a circulation system for metal resources.
The Shibata-Adachi Lab studies how to build mechanisms that circulate metal resources.
Its foundation is the concept of "Multi-metal Smelting," which links smelting and refining processes that have been separated by metal, such as copper, lead, and zinc.
The lab aims to extract metals not only from ores but also from E-scrap with complex compositions, from waste, and from smelting by-products.
While chemical thermodynamics is its academic base, the lab also tackles technical challenges that chemical thermodynamics alone cannot address.
Key terms
- Secondary raw materials
- Raw materials recovered after use, as opposed to ore, such as scrap from used electronic devices, waste, and smelting by-products
- Chemical thermodynamics
- The field that deals, in terms of energy, with the direction a chemical reaction proceeds and the point at which it reaches balance
- Flotation
- A mineral processing method in which finely crushed ore is mixed with water and the target mineral is attached to bubbles to separate it
NewsLab news
A master's student received the Excellence Presentation Award (Bronze Prize) at the Spring Meeting of the Tohoku Branch of the Mining and Materials Processing Institute of Japan
A master's student received the Dean of the Graduate School of Environmental Studies Award (DOWA Prize) at the Environmental Science Symposium
ResearchResearch themes
The lab aims to create a circulation system for metal resources based on the concept of "Multi-metal Smelting," which organically integrates smelting and refining processes that have been separated by metal, such as copper, lead, and zinc. Its work is wide-ranging: smelting technologies for new resources such as seafloor minerals, new electrolytic smelting and refining technologies, pretreatment of secondary raw materials, and detoxification of waste.
*Illustrative imageSmelting new mineral resources
Seafloor minerals are expected to become a new mineral resource, but their physical and chemical properties differ from those of land-based minerals, so smelting technologies must be developed anew. The lab is developing smelting processes for seafloor mineral resources that contain non-ferrous metals.
*Illustrative imageA new electrorefining method for copper
Blister copper produced at copper smelters that mainly use secondary raw materials contains many impurities and precious metals. In ordinary electrorefining, the anode becomes passivated and electrolytic copper cannot be produced. The lab is developing a copper electrorefining technology that uses shot-shaped (small granular) anodes so that passivation is not a problem.
*Illustrative imageStably immobilizing arsenic
The lab showed that adding hematite powder to an arsenic-rich ferrous sulfate solution efficiently produces coarse, faceted scorodite particles (particles with flat surfaces). It is now investigating, among other things, the effect of the valence of the iron contained in the solid iron oxide, in order to clarify how the particles form.
*Illustrative imageSearching for new flotation reagents by calculation
Using COSMO-RS, a thermodynamic partition equilibrium calculation method based on first-principles calculations, the lab is working to identify the molecular structures of new flotation reagents with high selectivity for copper ores and copper-arsenic ores.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Shibata-Adachi Lab consist of faculty, research support staff, and master's and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorEtsuro Shibata
- Assistant ProfessorKen Adachi
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Copper smelting works - Cobar, NSW, c.1892 (Photo, George Grill, Collection of Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW)” George Grill / Public domain (cropped)
- Smelting new mineral resources: “Pelagite (deep seafloor manganese nodule) (Pacific Ocean) 2” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- A new electrorefining method for copper: “Inujima Seirensho Art Museum ( )” KimonBerlin / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Stably immobilizing arsenic: “Arsenic-238920” Robert M. Lavinsky / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Searching for new flotation reagents by calculation: “FlotationFalconbridgeOnt” Plazak / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Fukuyama-Ohtsuka-Uchikoshi-Adachi Lab): “High Vacuum Creep Facility in the Materials Processing Laboratory (GRC-1973-C-00411)” NASA Glenn Research Center / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Okamoto-Oyanagi Lab): “00 3571 Geothermal power plant in New Zealand” W. Bulach / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Iizuka-Ho Lab): “ČBu, wastewater treatment plant 02” Czeva / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Sakaguchi-Satomi-Sueyoshi Lab): “GeysersGeothermalDrilling1977” Max Crittenden / Public domain (cropped)
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