• Resources Recycling
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.67-76
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• 2017

In order to efficiently recycle waste industrial nickel-cadmium batteries, anodic and cathodic materials were crushed by a cut mill and classified by sieves. We used wet magnetic separation method for eliminating iron components from the crushed powders. In addition, the acid leaching test for the obtained anode and cathode powders was carried out under various conditions by means of the wet process. At the optimum leaching conditions with 2.0 M $H_2SO_4$ at $90^{\circ}C$, 15 wt $H_2O_2$ and L/S=20 for 3 hours, the leaching efficiency of nickel and cadmium was 99%, respectively.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.84-91
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• 2018

In this study, a novel soft information based most probable classification scheme is proposed for sorting recyclable metal alloys with laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Regression analysis with LIBS captured spectrums for estimating concentrations of common elements can be efficient for classifying unknown arbitrary metal alloys, even when that particular alloy is not included for training. Therefore, partial least square regression (PLSR) is employed in the proposed scheme, where spectrums of the certified reference materials (CRMs) are used for training. With the PLSR model, the concentrations of the test spectrum are estimated independently and are compared to those of CRMs for finding out the most probable class. Then, joint soft information can be obtained by assuming multi-variate normal (MVN) distribution, which enables to account the probability measure or a prior information and improves classification performance. For evaluating the proposed schemes, MVN soft information is evaluated based on PLSR of LIBS captured spectrums of 9 metal CRMs, and tested for classifying unknown metal alloys. Furthermore, the likelihood is evaluated with the radar chart to effectively visualize and search the most probable class among the candidates. By the leave-one-out cross validation tests, the proposed scheme is not only showing improved classification accuracies but also helpful for adaptive post-processing to correct the mis-classifications.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.3-11
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• 2002

Recently, waste printed circuit board (PCB) has significantly increased in its amount due to the rapid development of electronic industries. Since several kinds of noxious materials and also valuable metals are contained in it, the waste PCB is in an urgent need of recycling for the dual purposes for the prevention of environmental pollution and recovery of valuable resources. Also, the catalyst which equipped in the exhaust pipes of automobiles to reduce emission of air pollutants contains precious met-als so that their recovery from the waste auto-catalysts is required. In this study, the recovery of valuable metals from waste PCB and auto-catalyst by arc furnace melting process has been investigated, which is known to be very stable and suitable f3r less production of pollutants due to its high operating temperature. The effect of the kind of flux on the recovery of precious metals was examined by using quicklime, converter slag, and copper slag as the flux. In addition, the influence of direct and alternating current and the applying direction of direct current has been investigated. It was observed that using converter or copper slag as a flux was more desirable for a higher efficiency in the precious metal recovery compared with quicklime. For the effect of current, application of direct current taking the bottom as a negative pole generally showed a better efficiency for the extraction of valuable metals from waste PCB, which was also observed for the case of waste auto-catalyst. The average recovery of precious metals from both wastes by arc furnace melting process was very high, which was up to in the range of 95～97%.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.3-8
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• 1997

The EA.F. sleelmaking slag (slag that follow) of a cnmvany 1 Co.. containzd a simple substance of a metal, wustlte (FeO), magnetite (Fe,O,), gehlenite (CaAl,SiO,), monlicellite (CaMgSiO,), dc. To recovere a metal (Fe grade . t95%) in the slag, it is desirable that the particles of a metal are isolated from thc slag and madc for a liberated subslance. Then, the liberaled melal is easlly recoveled by a magnetic separation. If thc rcclarnalcd slag, the sizc of which ranges under 40 nun, have a mulli-stage crushing, the most of a metal in thc slag is simply isolaled as a liberated subslance. If the mad, lhat is a liberated subslance and a sphere, is recovered by a magnetic field intensity. the minimum intensity, at which a metal is attracted, is approximately IOOG and did no1 dcpcnd on the particle size of a metad in the same particles. TIe recovered material. that contdined a iron (Fe) over 95% is a metal which is crushed slag by l00G in the multi-stage. If the magnetic field intcns~ty increase, the recovery mcrcasc, but the concentration grade decrease Bewusc thc concentration eams more and more impurities, iron oxide and the coml~ound of alkali earth element. 'll~ercforc If the rccla~nated slag have the multi-stage crushing, the metal is almostly recovered in the crushed slag by lO0G on each particles. If the slag, used as a rcclamatian lhat is a amount of 350,000 tan from I Co., was undcr the multistage crushing and then separaled by 100gauss, it is possible to recova a metal approximately 2.500 Ion, lhat is 0.73% of n ~eclamated slag. in 304.7 mm particles and to recover 4.200 tan in 0.3-1.7 mm particles , that is 1.2% nf a rcclamated slag, in a year. Therefore, ihe told recoverable meld is 6,700 ton, that is 19% of a reclmated slag, in a year, too.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 2018

The rapid increase in the consumption of products that contain rare metals has highlighted the importance of recycling and recovering resources from these products when they enter the waste stream. Among various metal resources that can be recovered, this study analyzes the waste streams of cobalt and palladium to determine how their waste resource circulation can be improved at each stage of the waste stream. The findings of this study point to improvements and strategies that can be made at individual stages. First, at the discharge/import stage, the implementation of tariff quotas for specific recycled metal resources is suggested to allow the systemic categorization of waste metals as resources. At the collection/discarding stage, a major problem is the instability in the supply of scrap metals, which may be better managed by changing the bidding process for the scrap metals. At the pretreatment stage, possible areas for improvement are uncovered concerning technical areas, such as technological development and improving the efficiency of material recycling, as well as policy-wise, for instance, expanding the regulation for manufacturers to produce products that are designed to facilitate resource recovery, increasing incentive for closed recycling, and refining the guidelines and standards for recycling. At the resource recovery stage, as the waste metal recycling industry consists of businesses that vary in size, policies to promote cooperation and coexistence between large and smaller enterprises will benefit the industry in the long-run. Lastly, at the product production/export stage, a tariff on exporting waste resources that contain cobalt and palladium will help control the amount of waste metals that are shipped abroad.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.28-35
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• 2002

A study on the grinding characteristics of metal components in printed circuit boards (PCBs) scrap by a swing-hammer typeimpact mill was conducted. The PCBs scrap crushed to sizes less than 3 mm were pulverized to liberate metal components by the impact mill. The effect of rotation speed of hammer on the grinding characteristics was investigated. The particle size distribution and degree of liberation of metals such as copper and solder were measured. The effect of rotation speed and particle size on the shape sorting of metal Particles from milled PCBs was investigated using an inclined vibrating Plate. At the hammer speed of 61.3 m/s about 80% of the copper particles became larger than 297 $\mu$m while 90% of solder particles was smaller than 297 $\mu$m. In the shape sorting method, the recovery location becomes shorter as the rotation speed of hammer increases. The recovery location for particles larger than 297$\mu$m was shorter than for particles sized between 149$\mu$m and 297$\mu$m. As the recovery location becomes shorter, KI value increases towards unity while $\phi_{c}$ value decreases towards unity indicating the more roundness of metal particles.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.16-29
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• 2018

In this study, metal and nonmetal contents and their economic values in ICT devices such as smart phones and laptop computers were evaluated. The electronic devices made by LG and Samsung were disassembled into 5 parts, which are printed circuit board assembly, battery, display, case and other electronic components. Metal and nonmetal contents in these parts were analyzed, and their economic values were calculated via multiplying the materials' contents by metal price obtained from KOMIS or nonmetal exchange price acquired from Korean recycling markets. Finally, the materials' contents and values according to each electronic parts and electronic devices were calculated. The results showed that the value of the smartphones and laptop computers of LG are 4,449.6 KRW (28,506 KRW/kg) and 6,830.2 KRW (7,053 KRW/kg), and those of Samsung are 1,849.3 KRW (13,499 KRW/kg) and 6,667.5 KRW (4,831 KRW/kg), respectively. It was also found that most of the value was concentrated in batteries and printed circuit board assemblies. In addition, Co, Au and Cu were found to be the most valuable resources in the devices.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.74-81
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• 2011

The dry method and wet method are currently used for the recovery of platinum group metals (Pt, Rh, Pd) contained in spent automobile catalysts. The study herein aims to identify the melting condition and optimum collector metal in accordance with a comparison of each concentration change in melting waste catalysts, using Fe and Cu in a basic experiment to recover waste catalysts through application of the dry melting method. As a summarized result of the experiment herein, it was determined to be more advantageous to use Fe as a parent material rather than Cu from the aspect of recollection rate, and the concentration change rate of platinum group metals within slag was greatly enhanced at $1,600^{\circ}C$ melting condition rather than at $1,500^{\circ}C$ in terms of melting processing temperature. The mean concentration of platinum group metals - Rh, Pd and Pt - within slag after a melting process at $1,600^{\circ}C$ were 6.21 ppm, 5.98 ppm and 6.97 ppm. The Rh and Pd were 50.58% and 55.31% respectively greater than the concentration change rate of platinum group metals in slag at a melting temperature of $1,500^{\circ}C$. However, since the initial concentration of Pt within the waste catalysts was 12.9 ppm, is relatively low, it was difficult to compare concentration change rates after the melting process.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2018

To enhance the recycling rate of used metal resources, it is strongly desired to develop a metal sorting system that can automatically identify metal type from mixed metal scraps and sort them separately. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy(LIBS) is a technique that enables real time classification of different metals based on multi-elemental and in-air analysis. In this work, we report the results of LIBS elemental analysis of field scrap samples acquired from a recycling company. By applying multivariate analysis, it was found that the LIBS signals of five different metals could be perfectly classified if surface contamination was removed. The classification accuracy degraded for LIBS signals including contaminant emission, which however could be overcome by performing the multivariate analysis using properly selected emission lines of higher correlation only. The significant improvement in classification accuracy and process speed by the selection of proper emission lines demonstrated the feasibility of LIBS technique as an industrial tool for metal scrap sorting.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.71-78
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• 2017

This study investigated the recovery of metallic aluminium in the black dross generated from used beverage can recycling process with crushing mechanism such as compression and impact. The as-received Al black dross had a spherical shape, and its size was about 10~40 mm. Also, The X-ray diffraction pattern showed that the main contents of black dross are composed of halite (NaCl), sylvite (KCl), spinel ($MgAl_2O_4$) and corundum ($Al_2O_3$). A metallic aluminium recovery test was performed using jaw crusher and hammer mill having different crushing mechanism. It was analysed that Jaw crushing process can separate into metallic aluminium and non metallic constituents. However, hammer milling process shows significant difference on the separation results. It was found that jaw crushing process was effective for recovery of metallic aluminium in the black dross than that of hammer milling process.