Metallurgical Effects of Introducing Powdered WEEE to a Molten Slag Bath

Evaluation of Recyclability of a WEEE Slag by Means of Integrative X-Ray Computer Tomography and SEM-Based Image Analysis

“…The slag, which was further investigated in this study, resulted from a previously conducted PCB melting experiment in a TBRC (top-blown rotary converter) of industrial scale (0.5 m 3 melt volume) [5]. Within the experiment, 560 kg of finely ground PCBs were injected into a synthetic slag phase at 1300 • C starting temperature.…”

“…The main elemental components of this injected material were Cu, Pb, Zn, Al, Ni, and Sn. For more details on the injected material, the reader is referred to Borowski et al (2018) [5]. The general schematic experimental set-up is shown in Figure 2.…”

“…% in the feed material. After 560 kg of material was continuously injected into the slag phase and 30 min of holding time elapsed, both slag and metal phases were tapped at 1450 • C into a cold (20 • C) cast-iron ladle that was coated with a thin graphite layer (for more detailed information on the smelting process from which the investigated slag originates, see Borowski et al (2018) [5]). In the ladle (see schematic in Figure 4), the metal was intended to settle at the bottom and to cool relatively quickly while the slag cooled down with different cooling rates from the outside to the center.…”

“…In this context, FACTSage™ (Thermafact/CRCT, Montreal, Figure 1. General schematic process of metal recycling from printed circuit board (PCB) scraps [5].…”

“…Although the recycling process is quite well developed and plenty of research was done in that field, the distribution of scarce elements is still not fully understood, and an efficient recovery method is yet to be developed. General schematic process of metal recycling from printed circuit board (PCB) scraps [5].…”