Assessment of Precious Metal Flows During Preprocessing of Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

Abstract

Keywords:industrial ecology printed circuit board (PCB) recycling resource recovery substance flow analysis (SFA) waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) SummaryThe manufacturing of electronic and electrical equipment (EEE) is a major demand sector for precious and special metals with a strong growth potential. Both precious and special metals are contained in complex components with only small concentrations per unit. After the use-phase, waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) is an important source of these "trace elements." Their recycling requires appropriate processes in order to cope with the hazardous substances contained in WEEE and to recover efficiently the valuable materials. Although state-of-the-art preprocessing facilities are optimized for recovering mass-relevant materials such as iron and copper, trace elements are often lost. The objective of this article is to show how a substance flow analysis (SFA) on a process level can be used for a holistic approach, covering technical improvement at process scale, optimization of product life cycles, and contributing to knowledge on economy-wide material cycles. An SFA in a full-scale preprocessing facility shows that only 11.5 wt.% of the silver and 25.6 wt.% of the gold and of the palladium reach output fractions from which they may potentially be recovered. For copper this percentage is 60. Considering the environmental rucksack of precious metals, an improvement of the recycling chain would significantly contribute to the optimization of the product life cycle impact of EEE and to ensuring the long-term supply of precious metals.

Towards a generic procedure for the detection of relevant contaminants from waste electric and electronic equipment (WEEE) in plastic food-contact materials: a review and selection of key parameters

“…Despite the huge efforts to perform this practice in a controlled way, many illegal domestic and backyard recycling is still occurring, generally in overseas countries (Yoshida 2011;Duan et al 2016). This results in a growing uncontrolled trade with WEEE-related polymeric waste streams, aluminium, ferrous and nonferrous metals (Chancerel et al 2009;Guo et al 2009;Dwivedy & Mittal 2010;Kahhat & Williams 2012).…”

Material Flow Analysis and Waste Management

“…For example, Chancerel et al ( 2009 ) assessed precious metal fl ows during preprocessing of waste electrical and electronic equipment and showed that only 11.5 % of the silver and 25.6 % of the gold and of the palladium reach output fractions from which they can potentially be recovered.…”

Perfluorinated oxygen- and sulfur-containing compounds as extractants for gold(III)

“…Electronic waste (e-waste) has been recognised as one of the fastest growing waste streams in the developed world, mainly due to advances in the electronics industry that render technology obsolete after only a few years [1,2]. This can lead to potential environmental problems as a proportion of the waste contains toxic metals such as Hg (II), Pb(II) or Cr(VI).…”