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Environmentally unsustainable and toxic chemical flocculants and dispersants from nickel (Ni) processing contribute to industrial effluents that greatly impact biodiversity and aquatic life. Despite the industry’s efforts to reduce its ecological footprintprimarily due to the lack of commercially available biodegradable, environmentally benign, and nontoxic reagentsthese reagents continue to harm natural ecosystems. Chemicals used during the processing operations often target a specific unit operation that negatively affects downstream operations. Herein, we discover the concentration-dependent behavior of cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) as a dispersant and flocculant, avoiding the use of various harmful chemicals in the nickel processing stages. Electrophoretic, optical brightfield microscopy, and quartz crystal microbalance-dissipation studies detected charge neutralization behavior by renewable and biodegradable CNCs, which can greatly benefit Ni processing operations. Microflotation experiments demonstrated that CNCs enhanced Ni recovery from 62 to 77 wt % and concentrate grade from 15 to 20 wt %. Settling and turbidity studies demonstrated the dual flocculant-dispersant behavior of CNCs resulting from the alignment of CNC fibers along the octahedral brucite basal and amphoteric edge plane of serpentine. CNCs can be used as dispersants during froth flotation to improve Ni beneficiation and as postprocessing flocculants for tailings management and dewatering, which is one of the major environmental and social concerns facing the mining and mineral processing industry. In addition, this study paves the way for CNCs to be used as flocculants and dispersants in a range of industries from healthcare to pharmaceuticals to semiconductor devices.

Biopolymers with different backbones have the potential to disperse the phyllosilicate particles in flotation or release the water trapped within tailing particles in flocculation and could decrease environmental problems of conventional reagents.