• Resources Recycling
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.63-70
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• 2011

Enviromental friendly leaching process for the recovery of cobalt and copper from the cobalt concentrate was investigated by organic acids as a leaching reagent. The experimental parameters, such as organic acid type, concentrations of leachant, time and temperature of the reaction as well as the solid to liquid ratio were tested to obtain the optinum conditions for the leaching of cobalt and copper. The results showed that citric acid was the most effective leaching reagent among the organic acids used in this experiment. About 99% of cobalt, 95% of copper and 70% of nickel was dissolved by 2.0 M of citric acid. Addition of 3.0 vol.% of hydrogen perioxide was effective to enhance the leaching efficiency and the optinum temperature was found to be about $70^{\circ}C$.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.44-51
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• 2009

Fundamental study has been made on the recovery of copper from the electronic scrap by hydrometallurgical process. Nitric acid was used as a leaching agent to dissolve the metals such as Cu, Sn, Pb, Fe etc. from the crushed electronic scraps. TBP was employed to extract nitric acid from the strong nitric acid leaching solutions and to reclaim nitric acid. From the experimental results, Cu was effectively leached by 3.0-4.0 M nitric acid. And 95% of nitric acid in the leaching solution was extracted by 60% TBP, and 98% of nitric acid was stripped from the loaded organic phase by distilled water and it was possible to reuse as a leaching agent.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.44-52
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• 2013

Bioleaching behavior of metal ions for recovery of cobalt and copper from cobalt concentrate was investigated by employing three Aspergillus niger strains. Various factors, such as organic acid generation with fungi type, pH of the culture and pulp density were studied. The results showed that the best fungi for organic acid(citric acid and oxalic acid) generation was A. niger KCTC 6144 using Malt Extract Broth culture at initial pH 3.5. But A. niger KCTC 6985 was more effective for the leaching of cobalt and copper from cobalt concentrate. Our results showed that 82% cobalt and 98% copper was dissolved by A. niger KCTC 6985 at 10g/L pulp density, at pH 3.5 and $24^{\circ}C$ after 15 days incubation.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.48-55
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• 2008

Leaching of copper and silver from mobile phone PCBs(printed circuit boards) with nitric acid was performed to investigate the effects of nitric acid concentrations, leaching temperatures, agitation speeds, and pulp densities on the leaching behaviors of Cu and Ag. The leaching rate considerably increased with increasing acid concentration and temperature. The leaching ratios of Cu and Ag were found to be 96.4% and 96.5%, respectively, under the optimum condition; at $80^{\circ}C$ with 2mol/L $HNO_3$ and 120g/L in pulp density within 39minutes. The kinetic parameters were determined based on the shrinking core model with reaction control corresponding to small particles. The activation energies for the leaching of copper and silver were found to be 45.5kJ/mol and 60.5kJ/mol at $35{\sim}80^{\circ}C$ with 2mol/L $HNO_3$, respectively.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.37-43
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• 2014

A study has been made on the recovery of tin and copper from waste solder stripper by oxalate precipitation. With the increasing of the oxalic acid addition, tin was precipitated effectively and removed above 99.5% of tin when the oxalic acid, in an amount 1.0-1.5 times the stoichometric requirement, was added. But, in this case, only 2.0% of copper was precipitated and lead, iron were not precipitated. So, tin was selectively removed from the waste solution. With the increasing of the reaction temperature, the removal percentage of tin was increased and maximum value at arounf $60^{\circ}C$ and decreased with increase in the temperature any more. After filtering the precipitate and drying in oven, $SnO_2$ was obtained from the precipitate. After removal of tin in stripping solution, above 91% of copper was selectively removed by Cu-oxalate by addition of oxalic acid.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2018

Physical property changes of printed circuit board (PCB) according to heat treatment conditions were investigated. The heat treatment was carried out in air and nitrogen atmosphere at temperature range from $200^{\circ}C$ to $325^{\circ}C$. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that the PCB was pyrolyzed in two steps. The thickness of PCB expanded by 11~28% at about $300^{\circ}C$ in both air and nitrogen atmosphere as layer disintegration occurred. Mechanical strength of PCB decreased from 338.4 MPa to 20.3~40.2 MPa due to the delamination caused by the heat treatment. The heated printed circuit boards were crushed and sieved for analysis of density distribution and liberation degree of copper according to particle size. As a result of the density distribution measurement, non metallic particles and copper particles were concentrated into different size range, respectively. The liberation degree of copper was improved from 9.3% to 100% at size range of $1,400{\sim}2,000{\mu}m$ by heat treatment.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.45-50
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• 2012

The room-temperature electrodeposition of metallic lithium was investigated from ionic liquid, 1-methyl-1-propylpiperidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (PP13TFSI) with lithium bis (trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) as a lithium source. Cyclic voltammograms on gold working electrode showed the possibility of the electrodeposition of metallic lithium, and the reduction current on a gold electrode was higher than the value on platinum and copper. The metallic lithium could be electrodeposited on the gold electrode under potentiostatic condition at -2.4 V (vs. Pt-QRE) and was confirmed by analytical techniques including XRD and SEM-EDS. The dendrite-typed electrodeposits were composed of a metallic lithium and a alloy with gold substrate. And any impurity could be detected except for trace oxygen introduced during handling for the analyses.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.29-35
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• 2015

A feasibility test was carried out for upcycling of waste jelly-filled communication cables together with the development of environmentally friendly processes and equipments. High pressure water injection is proved to be an exceptionally environmentally friendly and highly efficient mechanical process. A batch-type cable barking equipment is designed and built on the basis of computational fluid dynamics modelling. It is optimized in terms of energy consumption and productivity with very high copper recovery of 99.5%. Copper nano-powder is prepared by an electrical wire explosion in ethanol media in order to improve the value of final products, and the preliminary economical assessment is also conducted.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.73-80
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• 2020

In order to develop a process for the recovery of valuable metals from spent LiBs, solvent extraction experiments were performed to separate Cu(II) and/or Co(II) from synthetic hydrochloric acid solutions containing Li(I), Mn(II), and Ni(II). Commercial amines (Alamine 336 and Aliquat 336) were employed and the extraction behavior of the metals was investigated as a function of the concentration of HCl and extractants. The results indicate that HCl concentration affected remarkably the extraction efficiency of the metals. Only Cu(II) was selectively at 1 M HCl concentration, while both Co(II) and Cu(II) was extracted by the amines when HCl concentration was higher than 5 M, leaving the other metal ions in the raffinate. Therefore, it was possible to selectively extract either Cu(II) or Co(II)/Cu(II) by adjusting the HCl concentration.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.18-29
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• 2021

Platinum group metals (PGMs) are used in a wide range of application fields such as catalysts, electronic devices, electrodes, electrical devices, fuel cells and high temperature materials due to their excellent electrical and thermal conductivity as well as chemical resistivity. Platinum group elements are generally associated with nickel-copper sulfides in magmatic rocks. Depending on the relative concentrations of the PGMs, they are produced either as the primary products or as by-products of the nickel and copper. However, PGMs natural resource deposits are strictly limited in countries such as South Africa and Russia. The annual supply of PGMs is only under 500 t. Considering the limited supply of PGMs, there will be a noticeable increase in the supply risk associated with PGMs in the near future. Therefore, it is extremely important to recover PGMs from secondary resources such as spent catalysts. This paper reviews on overview of PGMs extraction and recycling processes.