Preprint Communication Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Economical Aspects of the Mechanical Pre-treatment Role in the Precious Metals Recovery from Electronic Waste

Ervins Blumbergs
,
Andrei Shishkin
* ,
Karlis Markus
,
Vera Serga
ORCID logo ,
Dmitri Goljandin
ORCID logo ,
Artur Klauson
ORCID logo ,
Vitalijs Abramovskis
,
Janis Baronins
,
Aleksej Zarkov
ORCID logo ,
Vladimir Pankratov
Version 1 : Received: 29 December 2023 / Approved: 30 December 2023 / Online: 30 December 2023 (15:54:16 CET)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Blumbergs, E.; Shishkin, A.; Markus, K.; Serga, V.; Goljandin, D.; Klauson, A.; Abramovskis, V.; Baronins, J.; Zarkov, A.; Pankratov, V. Economic Aspects of Mechanical Pre-Treatment’s Role in Precious Metals Recovery from Electronic Waste. Metals 2024, 14, 95. Blumbergs, E.; Shishkin, A.; Markus, K.; Serga, V.; Goljandin, D.; Klauson, A.; Abramovskis, V.; Baronins, J.; Zarkov, A.; Pankratov, V. Economic Aspects of Mechanical Pre-Treatment’s Role in Precious Metals Recovery from Electronic Waste. Metals 2024, 14, 95.

Abstract

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) make up 3 to 5% of all electronic waste. The metal content of spent PCBs can reach 40%. They usually contain valuable metals - Ag, Au, Pd, as well as other metals such as Cu, Sn, Pb, Cd, Cr, Zn, Ni and Mn. However metallic part of whole PCB is 40-60% including Cu layers between the fiberglass-polymer layers. The paper describes economics of the the valuable metals (Ag, Au, Pd) containing concentrate preparation from raw PCB. Considered the influence of pre-treatment method of PCB before the extraction of valuable metals on the extraction self-cost change. The disintegration method is based on the high-energy impact of the particles of the material to be ground, thus causing the separation of the metallic components of the PCB. In the course of the work, single and double direct grinding by the method of disintegration was studied. For the calculation the test batch 10’000 kg of two types of PCB were taken for estimation of the self costs and potential profit in case of complete valuable metals (Ag, Au, Pd) plus Cu extraction. Is shown that from 10’000 kg of studied PCB is possible to obtain 1144 and 1644 kg of metal-rich concentrate, which further should be subjected to electro-hydrochlorination for metals leaching. The main findings shows, that despite of high content of Cu in studied PCB, the commercial value is insignificant in total income from the Ag, Au and Pd sale. Was established correlation of the self-cost decrease after separative disintegration of PCB by metal content increase (by specific metals such as Au, Ag, Pd and also Cu) with the metal potential yield after extraction.

Keywords

waste printed circuit boards; PCB; recycling; disintegrator milling; separation; precious metals; recovery; self-costs

Subject

Chemistry and Materials Science, Chemical Engineering

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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