• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.44-50
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• 2015

Recycling technologies would be required in consideration of increasing demand in lithium ion batteries (LIBs). In this study, the leaching behavior of Ni, Co and Mn is investigated with ammoniacal medium for spent cathode active materials, which are separated from a commercial LIB pack in hybrid electric vehicles. The leaching behavior of each metal is analyzed in the presence of reducing agent and pH buffering agent. The existence of reducing agent is necessary to increase the leaching efficiency of Ni and Co. The leaching of Mn is insignificant even with the existence of reducing agent in contrast to Ni and Co. The most conspicuous difference between acid and ammoniacal leaching would be the selective leaching behavior between Ni/Co and Mn. The ammoniacal leaching can reduce the cost of basic reagent that makes the pH of leachate higher for the precipitation of leached metals in the acid leaching.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.11-19
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• 2016

A fundamental study to recycle a Si-Sludge and waste copper nitrate solution acid solution generated by domestic electronic industries was carried out. The waste copper nitrate solution was used as the lixiviant to leach the metals like Cu, Ca, Fe, etc. from the sludge leaving Si in the residues. The effect of reaction temperature, time and pup density on the metals leaching from the sludge was investigated. To enhance the extractability of Fe, the effect of HCl, $HNO_3$ and $H_2O_2$ introduced additionally during the leaching was also examined. Considering the leaching efficiency of Fe along with Cu, the leaching conditions comprising of 200 ~ 225 g/L pulp density and $90^{\circ}C$ temperature for 30 min were optimized. Under this condition, 98.27 ~ 99.17% Cu could be dissolved in the leach liquor with the obtained purity of Si in the residues as 98.69 ~ 98.86 %. The study revealed that the leaching of Cu contained in the Si-Sludge with the waste copper nitrate solution is a plausible approach by which the obtained leach liquor can further be treated suitably to recover Cu as the high pure value-added products.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.3-13
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• 2016

Statistics on the urban mining industry is the essential information to develop the urban mining industry systematically and the prerequisite way to understand its related trends. Status on domestic urban mining industry was thus investigated through the integrated method which uses both the top-down way based on the national statistics utilization and the bottom-up way based on field data gathering. Results indicated that the scale of metal resources produced through domestic urban mine was 19.6 trillion won, which corresponds to approximately 22 percent of metal demand in korea. The number of firms for urban mining was 917, and they are mostly placed in metropolitan area and Gyeongsang province. It was also found that about 58 percent of urban mining firms was in small business level less than 10 employees. Compared to the results in 2009, the number of urban mining companies in 2014 generally increased, and that of rare metal companies grew up significantly. This study is particularly different from the conventional statistics investigation on the point of the actual scale findings of metal resources based on the field data.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.22-29
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• 2009

To design and construct a moving bed stoker incinerator for incineration treatment of the domestic oil fly ash, operating condition and moving bed area of incinerator were determined by performing incinerate experiment of the oil fly ash in the muffle furnace which simulates moving bed stoker incinerator in all conditions. Incineration process of the oil fly ash could be divided into 3 stages, every stage needs the appropriate operating condition for effective incineration. The optimum content of water in the heavy oil fly ash was found to be 20 wt% to prevent the ash from flying and reduce the volume. Science combustion rate of oil fly ash depends on the oxygen content, the incinerator must have a equipment to control the oxygen content in the combustion air. The optimum temperature was $750{\sim}800^{\circ}C$ in order to prevent adhesion to the stocker and evaporation of metal compounds of low melting point. Uniform combustion reaction and acceleration of combustion rate required agitation during the combustion of oil fly ash. The incineration rate was $12.53kg/m^2hr$ and the working area of moving bed incinerator was found to be $60m^2$ to incinerate 18 tons of oil fly ash per day.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.3-8
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• 2012

In the points of the environmental conservation and the recirculating utilization of limited resources, it is very important to recover valuable metals like Au, Ag, Pd, Cu, Sn, Ni, Co, and Li used as industrial raw materials from urban ores. From now, many processes have been developed for recovering the valuable metals contained in urban ores and some of them have been operated commercially. In the paper, pyrometallurgical processes developed for reclaiming valuable metals from urban ores will be briefly introduced.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.66-76
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• 2021

Electric arc furnace dust (EAFD) contains compounds, such as oxides and chlorides, including large quantities of Zn, Pb and Fe. An efficient and stable method for the extraction of metal elements from EAFD is the Rotary Kiln Process. This method is used to recover Zn in the form of crude ZnO (approximately 60%) via the addition of a reducing agent (coke, anthracite) and limestone (for basicity control) to EAFD. This process is commonly used in industry as well as in research and development. Currently, this method is used in many Korean commercial plants, producing approximately 150,000 tons of Crude ZnO per year. The majority of Zn is found in crude ZnO (approximately 76%). In addition components such as Pb, Cd, Sn, In, Fe, Cl, and F are present as oxides, chlorides, and alkaline compounds. This elements have an adverse effect on the zinc smelting process. Therefore, a refining process that eliminates these impurities is essential. In this study, we developed a process technology that efficiently separates Zn and Pb from byproducts (mainly chlorides). A bag filter was used to collect Zn and Pb generated during the dry purification process of crude ZnO. Pure components were recovered as metals or metal carbonate.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.3-15
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• 2008

Different toxic wastes are disposed of in our surroundings and these will ultimately threaten the existence of living organisms. Biohydrometallurgy, which includes the processes of bioleaching and bioremediation through the activities of microorganisms such as bacterial or fungal species, is a technology that has the potential to overcome many environmental problems at a reasonable economic cost. Bioleaching were carried out for dissolution of metals from different materials using most important metal mobilizing bacteria such as Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, Thiobacillus thiooxidans and Laptospirillum ferrooxidans. According to the reaction, bioleaching is parted as direct and indirect mechanism. In direct mechanism the bacteria oxidize the sulphides minerals by accepting electron and producing sulphuric acid in leaching media for their growth and metabolism. In other hand the indirect bioleaching is demonstrated as the oxidation of sulphides mineral by the oxidant like $Fe^{3+}$ produced by the iron oxidizing bacteria. Through this process, substantial amount of metal can be recovered from low-grade ores, concentrates, industrial wastes like sludge, tailings, fly ash, slag, electronic scrap, spent batteries and spent catalysts. This may be alternative technology to solve the high deposition of waste, which moves toward a healthy environment and green world.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.14 no.5 s.67
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• pp.45-53
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• 2005

Electro-generated chlorine leaching of waste printed circuit boards was investigated in hydrochloric acid solutions. Non-magnetic component of $0.6{\sim}1.2mm$ was prepared by grinding, magnetic separation, and sieving. The non-magnetic component of pulverized printed circuit board contained about 45% of metal component, in which copper was about 83.6%. The leaching rate of copper was greatly affected by current density and agitation speed. The leaching of copper up to 98% was achieved at $20mA/cm^2$, $50^{\circ}C$, 180 minutes, and 600 rpm in 1M HCl solutions. Increasing agitation and lowering current density enhanced utilization efficiency of electro-generated chlorine. Leaching of copper was suppressed at the initial stage, while the minor metal elements, such as aluminum, lead, and tin, were dominantly leached out.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.3-9
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• 2007

Dismantlement of lithium primary batteries without explosion is required to recycle the lithium primary batteries which could be exploded by heating too much or crushing. In the present study, the optimum discharging condition was investigated to dismantle the batteries without explosion. When the batteries were discharged with $0.5kmol{\cdot}m^{-3}$ sulfuric acid, the batteries became inert after 4 days at $35^{\circ}C$ and after 1 day at $50^{\circ}C$, respectively. This result shows that higher temperature accelerates inert of the batteries. Because loss of metals recycled increases when the batteries are discharged only with the sulfuric acid, discharging process using acid solution and water was newly proposed. When the batteries were discharged with water during 24 hours after discharging with $0.5kmol{\cdot}m^{-3}$ sulfuric acid during 6 hours, the batteries discharged were dismantled without explosion. Because decrease in loss of metals was accomplished by new process, the recycling process of the batteries could become economic by the 2-step discharging process.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.53-58
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• 2018

Solvent extraction of Li(I) from weak HCl solution was investigated by the mixture of TBP/MIBK with other neutral extractants such as Cyanex 923, TOPO and TOP. The TBP/MIBK organic phase was loaded with 0.1 M $FeCl_3$ at different HCl concentrations (1-9 M). Extraction of Li(I) from weak HCl solution is related to the stability of $FeCl_3$ in the organic mixture. As HCl concentration increased in preparing the loaded TBP phase, the stripping percentage of Fe(III) during the extraction of Li(I) became reduced and thus Li(I) could be extracted by ion exchange reaction with hydrogen ion in the organic. The concentration of TBP in the extractant mixture affected the stability of $FeCl_3$. Compared to TBP, Fe(III) was easily stripped from the loaded MIBK and thus no Li(I) was extracted by the mixture with MIBK. The nature of neutral extractant with TBP/MIBK showed little difference in the extraction of Li(I) and stripping of Fe(III).