• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.3-8
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• 2023

This study discussed production, demand, and future prospects of rubidium, which is an alkali group metal that is highly reactive to various media and requires carefulness in handling, but no significant environmental hazard of rubidium has been reported yet. Rubidium is used in various fields such as optoelectronic equipment, biomedical, and chemical industries. Because of difficulty in production as well as limited demand, the transaction price of rubidium is relatively high, but its detail information such as market status and potential growth is uncertain. However, if the mass production of versatile ultra-high-performance equipment such as quantum computers and the necessity of rubidium use in the equipment are confirmed, there is a possibility that the rubidium market will expand in the future. Rubidium is often found together with lithium, beryllium, and cesium, and may be present in granite containing minerals such as lepidolite and pollucite, as well as in seawater and industrial waste. Several technologies such as acid leaching, roasting, solvent extraction, and adsorption are used to recover rubidium. The maximum recovery efficiency of the rubidium from the sources and the processing above is generally high, but, in many practices, rubidium is not the main recovery target, and therefore the actual recovery effects should depend on presence of other valuable components or impurities, together with recovery costs, energy consumption, environmental issues, etc. In conclusion, although the current production and consumption of rubidium are limited, with consideration of the possible market fluctuations according to the emergence of large-scale demand sources, etc., further investigations by related institutions should be necessary.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.48-54
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• 2011

Sulphuric acid leaching was conducted to extract the metal values from spent refinery catalyst. More than 95% of Ni and V and 30% of Mo could be leached out in 1 M sulphuric acid and 1 hr of leaching time. The decrease in Mo leaching was due to typical characteristic of Mo matrix. The activation energies of the leaching reactions showed the dissolution process follows a diffusion control mechanism. In order to leach out all Mo, further the leaching experiments were conducted with sulfur free spent refinery catalyst. For sulfur free spent refinery catalyst, a two step process of leaching with 1 M sulphuric acid followed by sodium carbonate washing showed better leaching than a two step leaching process with sodium carbonate followed by sulphuric acid washing, with almost 99% leaching of Ni, Mo and V. Solvent extraction using LIX 841 were conducted for a leach liquor containing Ni, 2 g/L; V, 9 g/L, Mo, 0.6 g/L. More than 98% of Mo was extracted from the leach liquor at A:O ratio of 5:2 in a 2 stage process. Similarly V was extracted at A:O ratio of 5:3 in a 2 stage process with 82% of total V extraction.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.29-35
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• 2001

This study was carried out to recover gold, silver and valuable metals from the printed circuit boards (PCBs) of waste computers. PCBs samples were crushed under 1 mm by a shredder and separated into 30% conducting and loft nonconducting materials by an electrostatic separator. The conducting materials contained valuable metals which were then used as feed materials for magnetic separation. 42% of magnetic materials from the conducting materials was removed by magnetic separation as nonvaluable materials and the others, 58% of non magnetic materials, was used as leaching samples containing 0.227 mg/g Au and 0.697 mg/g Ag. Using the materials of leaching from magnetic separation, more than 95% of copper, iron, zinc, nickel and aluminium was dissolved in 2.0M sulfuric acid solution, added with 0.2M hydrogen peroxide at $85^{\circ}C$. Au and Ag were not extracted in this solution. On the other hand, more than 95% of gold and 100% of silver were leached by the selective leaching with a mixed solvent (0.2M($NH_4$)$_2$$S_2$$O_3$,0.02M $CuSO_4$,0.4M $NH_4$OH). Finally, the residues were reacted with a NaCl solution to leach Pb whereas sulfuric acid was used to leach Sn. Recoveries reached 95% and 98% in solution, respectively.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.55-63
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• 2013

Considering considerable contents of vanadium and tungsten in spent SCR DeNOx catalysts, separation and recovery of those metals are required. In this respect, commercial anion exchange resin (MP600) was employed to recover vanadium from the synthetic solution of ammonium metavanadate. Experimental results indicated that vanadium exist as anion under the acidic condition (pH 2 ~ 6) and adsorbed on the resin. Although the adsorption rate was increased with temperature, the maximum amount of adsorption was not affected by temperature. Desorption took place under either strong acidic (less than pH 1) or strong caustic (higher than pH 13) condition. However, desorption seldom took place under moderate conditions (pH 3~11). Furthermore, adsorption equilibrium results agreed well with Freundlich isotherm and pseudo-second-order reactions. And, adsorption energy was evaluated using Dubinin-Radushkevich and Temkin isotherm.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.13-18
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• 2003

The initial NiCuZn synthetic ferrite were acquired from thermally decomposing the metal nitrates Fe($NO_3$)$_3$ㆍ$9H_2$O, Zn($NO_3$)$_2$ㆍ$6H_2$O, Ni($NO_3$3)$_2$ㆍ $6H_2$O and Cu(NO$_3$)$_2$ㆍ $3H_2$O at 1$50^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours and was calcined at $500^{\circ}C$. Each of those was pulverized for 3 and 9 hours in a steel ball mill and was sintered between $700^{\circ}C$ and $1,000^{\circ}C$ for 1 hour, and then their microstructures and magnetic properties were examined. We could make the initial specimens chemically bonded in liquid at the temperature as low as $150 ^{\circ}C$, by using the melting points less than $ 200^{\circ}C$ of the metal nitrates instead of the mechanical ball milling, then narrowed a distance between the particles into a molecular level, and thus lowed sintering temperature by at least $200 ^{\circ}C$ to $300^{\circ}C$ Their initial permeability was 50 to 490 and their saturation magnetic induction density and coercive force 2,400G and 0.3 Oe to 1.2 Oe each, which were similar to those of NiCuZn ferrite synthesized in the conventional process.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.33-39
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• 2015

A basic study was conducted to effectively recover nitric acid from a waste solder stripper by diffusion dialysis using anion exchange membranes. The effects of flow rate, flux ratio, nitrate concentration, and metallic ion types and concentration on the recovery percentage of nitric acid were investigated. The recovery percentage of nitric acid was decreased with the increase of flow velocity. But the recovery percentage of nitric acid was increased as the increase of flux ratio(W/F) and showing a recovery percentage of nitric acid of about 99% at a flux ratio of 1.5 or more. As the increase of nitric acid concentration in feed solution, the recovery percentage of nitric acid was increased up to 3.0M, but in case of greater than 3.0M, the recovery percentage gradually was decreased. Leakage percentage of metallic ions through the membrane were in the order of Pb, Na and Cu but Fe and Sn did not leakaged. As a result of diffusion dialysis using real waste solder stripper at a flow rate of $0.9L/hr-m^2$, W/F = 1.3, a recovery percentage of nitric acid of approximately 94% was gained.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.29-36
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• 2013

Although Korean domestic production of flat panel displays totalled more than 48 trillion KRW in 2007, most of the flat panel display wastes have been land-filled or incinerated, which greatly overshadows Korean national prestige as a world leading producer and developer of flat panel display devices. Countries such as Japan or EU possess quite limited land-fill capability and have sought ways to dispose of WEEEs from environment-friendly perspective rather than recovery of valuable materials from the wastes. Considering relatively short cycle of about 5 years for flat panel display devices, it is estimated that more than 5 million units will be accumulated as wastes by 2015. Urban mining is a most suitable countermeasures against China's monopoly of rare and rare earth metals, which are contained in flat panel display wastes. Therefore, materials recycling of waste LCD units has to be developed and commercialized soon enough for economic and environment-friendly recovery of valuable resources hidden in LCD wastes.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.61-68
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• 2018

The aluminum dross is oxide generated on the surface of the molten metal during the aluminum melting process and it is divided into white dross and black dross according to presence of the Salt flux. White dross has high metal content and is recycled via the melting process. Black dross is largely berried, because the it has a low metal content and difficulty in separating the components. Black dross contains a salt components such as NaCl and KCl, and inorganic materials such as $Al_2O_3$ and MgO, and it is necessary to study the technology to recover and recycle such valuable resources. In this study, a process for recycling aluminum black dross was proposed. The inorganic and soluble substances present in the black dross were separated through crushing-dissolution-solid/liquid separation-decompression evaporating. By controlling the ratio of water and black dross, the recovery condition of the separated product was optimized and we confirmed the highest Salt flux recovery efficiency 91 wt.% at black dross:water ratio 1:9. Finally, Through the synthesis of zeolite using recovered ceramic material, the materialization possibility of black dross was confirmed.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.3-13
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• 2002

The characteristics of cyanide decomposition in aqueous phase by hydrogen peroxide have been explored in an effort to develop a process to recycle waste water. The self-decomposition of $H_2O$$_2$at pH 10 or below was minimal even in 90 min., with keeping about 90% of $H_2O$$_2$undissociated. On the contrary, at pH 12 only 9% of it remained during the same time. In the presence of copper catalyst at 5 g Cu/L, complete decomposition of $H_2$O$_2$was accomplished at pH 12 even in a shorter time of 40 min. The volatility of free cyanide was decisively dependent on the solution pH: the majority of free cyanide was volatilized at pH 8 or below, however, only 10% of it was volatilized at pH 10 or above. In non-catalytic cyanide decomposition, the free cyanide removal was incomplete in 300 min. even in an excessive addition of $H_2$$O_2$at a $H_2$$O_2$/CN molar ratio of 4, with leaving behind about 8% of free cyanide. On the other hand, in the presence of copper catalyst at a Cu/CN molar ratio of 0.2, the free cyanide was mostly decomposed in only 16 min. at a reducedH202/CN molar ratio of 2. Ihe efnciency of HBO2 in cyanide decomposition decreased with increasing addition of H2O2 since the seu-decomposition rate of $H_2$$O_2$increased. At the optimum $H_2$$O_2$/mo1ar ratio 0.2 of and Cu/CN molar ratio of 0.05, the free cyanide could be completely decomposed in 70 min., having a self-decomposition rate of 22 mM/min and a H$_2$$O_2$ efficiency of 57%.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.52-59
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• 2008

Sol-gel process applied in this study was carried out by chelation of metal ions and citric acid. From the results of thermal gravimetric analysis and XRD analysis of gel powder obtained through sol-gel and heat treatment, gel powders are mostly amorphous, and crystallize completely at $900^{\circ}C$, and the crystalline structure of YAG increases with increasing calcinations temperature. Since YAG prepared by sol-gel & calcinations process was porous, and the sape and size was irregular and nonuniform, the shape and size of YAG powder had to be controlled. Therefore the effects of organic materials such as ethylene glycol and surfactant on the crystalline structure of YAG powder were investigated. Polyesterification of ethylene glycol and citric acid separated reaction area of metal ions in the solution and decreased the size of YAG primary particles. The addition of Igepal 630 as surfactant formed the droplet in the solution, and increased the size of primary particles which forms the aggregate of YAG In order to obtain monodispersed YAG particles of uniform size, gel powder prepared with organic materials had to be milled before calcination. And milling process was very important for obtaining YAG of uniform size.