Abstract
In the last years the amount of electronic waste increased steadily due to the higher number of electronic utilized in industry and daily routine. In particular, printed circuit boards are representing a valuable solid waste, containing precious metal concentrations even higher than the corresponding ores and therefore, represent the main monetary value in such materials. During the processing of these scraps different by-products with serious metallic contents are formed, like ash, slags, sludges and dust which require a separated treatment or in some cases get landfilled. In course of this thesis a detailed characterization of such a dust residue from printed circuit board beneficiation is done and the recovery of valuable metals, like gold and silver, within a metal bath process is evaluated. Half of this residue consists out of plastics which makes the direct recycling of metals complicated. Problematic are the containing elements namely chlorine, fluorine and bromine, which are introduced through the plastics and can lead to the formation of volatile metal halides. Additionally, beside the noble metals, the dust contains also high contents of copper, lead and tin, which increases the value of the waste and therefore, should be recovered as well.
Translated title of the contribution | Recovery of critical metals from industrial residues arising during the beneficiation steps of electronic waste |
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Original language | German |
Qualification | Dipl.-Ing. |
Supervisors/Advisors |
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Award date | 26 Jun 2015 |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Bibliographical note
embargoed until 18-05-2020Keywords
- recycling
- dust residue
- comminution fines
- metal recovery
- noble metals