• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.193-197
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• 2001

This study was carried out to recover gold, silver and other valuable metals from the printed circuit boards (PCB) of waste computers. PCB samples were crushed to under 1mm by a shredder and initially separated into 30% conducting and 70% non-conducting materials by an electrostatic separator. The conducting materials, which contained the valuable metals, were then used as the feed material for magnetic separation where it was found that 42% was magnetic and 58% non- magnetic. The non-magnetic materials contained 0.227mg/g Au and 0.697mg/g Ag. Further leaching of the non-magnetic component using 2.0M sulfuric acid and 0.2M hydrogen peroxide at 85$^{\circ}C$ extracted more than 95% copper, iron, zinc, nickel and aluminium. Au and Ag were not extracted in this solution, however, more than 95% of Au and 100% of Ag were selectively leached with a mixed solvent (0.2M ammonium thiosulfate, 0.02M copper sulfate, 0.4M ammonium hydroxide). Finally, the residues were reacted with a NaCl solution to leach out Pb while sulfuric acid was used to leach out Sn. Recoveries reached 95% and 98% in solution, respectively.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.19-25
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• 1995

A Study on the recovery of the valuable metals(Vanadium Molybdenium) was carried out using spent catalysts originated from desulfurizing process of oil refinery. Experiments consisted of pre-roasting for Sulfur and Carbon removal, soda roasting and leaching for the extraction of valuable metals, and selective precipitation of Vanadium and Molybdenium. Effects of temperature and time in roasting for Sulfur removal, of $Na_2CO_3$ concentrations in soda roasting, and of pulp density, temperature and time in leaching were investigated for the recovery of Vanadium and Molybdenium. A optimum condition having over 85% in yield of Vanadium and Molybdenium was found. In the selective precipitation, more than 98% of Vanadium and Molybdenium were obtained by the variation of pH and concentration of additives.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.367-371
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• 2012

Waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) contain valuable metals such as Cu, Ni, Au, Ag, and Pd. For an effective recycling of WPCBs, it is essential to recover the valuable metals. In recent years, recycling processes have come to be necessary for separating noble metals from WPCBs due to an increasing amount of electronic device wastes. However, it is well known that glass reinforced epoxy resins in the WPCBs are difficult materials to separate into elemental components, namely metals, glass fibers and epoxy resins in the chemical recycling process. $K_3PO_4$ as a catalyst in dimethylformamide (DMF) and N-Methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) was used to depolymerize epoxy resins for recovering metallic and non-metallic components from WPCBs. Reactions of WPCBs were carried out at temperatures $160{\sim}200^{\circ}C$ for 2~12 h. The recycled glass fiber from WPCBs was analyzed by thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) and evaluated the degree of solubility of the epoxy resin for separation efficiencies of the WPCBs.

• 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%.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.381-386
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• 2001

The dust generated from the electric arc furnace steel making process is classified as hazardous material by Korean Environmental Protection Acts, mainly because of the existence of water teachable Pb, Zn and Cd. Thus the treatment of EAF dust is being carried out to fulfill both the environmental aspect and recovery of valuable metals. To establish the proper process for recovering the valuable metals (Fe, Zn, Pb and Cd) and producing the non-toxic slag from EAF dust, using RAPID-10 system, feasibility study have been carried out. To find out the scale-up factor for designing the commercial scale EAF dust treatment process(capacity 50,000 ton EAF dust per year) entitled RAPID-50 system. The design and construction of RAPID-50 (RIST Arc Plasma Industrial Device) system for treating 50,000 ton of EAF dust per year is now undergoing. Overall plan for treating EAF dust generated in KOREA will be setup after successful operation (December, 2002) of RAPID-50 system.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.9-18
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• 2002

Printed wiring boards(PWBs) of the obsolete computers are composed of various organic and inorganic compounds as well as metals and alloys. As convinced that the valuable metals obtained from the PWBs are effectively utilized as secondary resources when recovered by economical methods, in this study, an investigation for characterizing the physical separation techniques is conducted. For the recovery of them, the sockets and chips dismantled from PWBs by scraping and residual resin boards are subjected to the appropriate separation processes according to the physical properties of each part. In the case of crushed socket scraps size ranged from -2.36 mm to +1.18 mm, approximately 97 wt% of the product obtained by magnetic separation consists of metallic compounds. In the case of chip scraps, 97% of Fe-Ni alloy and 95% of Cu metal are recovered by the combined process of air classification and dry magnetic separation in the size range from -2.36 mm to +0.15 mm. Ball milling is adopted in order to improve the removal efficiency of the thin-printed metallic materials on the residual resin boards and approximately 77% of Cu metal is recovered by zigzag separation after ball milling.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.76-80
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• 2015

Mobile phone has become one of the essential items in our daily life. In Korea, it is estimated that more than 20 million cell phones are discarded each year due to advancement in technology, thus creating disposal and environmental pollution. In order to conserve the resources, their proper recycling is essential as it contains both valuable and toxic metals. The economics of the recycling will depend on the amount and value of the metals. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the composition of the metals present in the different cell phones. In the present study, a report is presented on the variation of metal content per year of waste mobile phones. A review has been made for the mobile phones manufactured during the period 2000-2009 and metal content of the printed circuit boards (PCBs) by analyzing their metals. An example of the precious metal palladium and of the heavy metal lead shows the decreasing trend.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.46-51
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• 1995

After removal of mercury in the silver oxide batteries with the distillation process, the leaching of valuable metals from the residue was studied. The distilled residue was reacted with the various HNO, concentration, reactlon temperature, readion time and pulp density. It was found that the optimum condition for leachmg was 2N HNO,, 40-60% reaction temperature, 6 hours reaction tlme and 10g/200ml pulp density. More than 99% of silver and zinc were dissolved in this process while less than 50% of iron and nickel were leached

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.404-408
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• 2001

This paper focuses on the pilot-scale investigation of direct recycling of electric arc furnace (EAF) stainless steelmaking dust. The direct recycling of EAF dust is to make pellets with the mixture of the dust and the reducing agent carbon, then introduce the pellets to the EAF. The valuable metals in the dust are reduced and get into the steel as the alloying elements. Experiments simulating direct recycling in an EAF were performed using an induction furnace. But it seems difficult to reduce all metal oxides in the dust so that some metal reducing agents added in the late stage of reduction process. The valuable metals in the dust were reduced partly by carbon and partly by metal reducing agent for the economical concern. The recovery of iron, chromium and nickel from the flue dust and the amount of metal oxides in the slag were measured. The results showed that the direct recycling of EAF stainless steelmaking dust is practicable. It wes also found that direct recycling of flue EAF stainless steelmaking dusts does not affect the chemistry and quality of stainless steel produced in the EAF. It is benefit not only for the environmental protection but also for the recovery of valuable metal resources in this way.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.140-143
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• 2001

A study has been made on the recovery of nitric acid and valuable metals such as Cu, Sn, Pb from the spent nitric etching solutions. The nitric acid was extracted effectively by TBP but the heavy metals such as Fe, Cu, Sn, Pb were not extracted by TBP from the spent nitric etching solutions. From the experimental results, 95% of nitric acid in spent etching solution was extracted at O:A ratio of 3:1 with five stage by 60% TBP and 98% of nitric acid was stripped from the loaded organic phase at O:A ratio of 1:1 with four stages by distilled water. After extracting nitric acid, Cu was recovered as a metal by electrowinning effectively and Sn was successfully removed by precipitation method by adjusting the pH of raffinate solution. Finally, Pb was recovered by cementation with iron scrap at $65^{\circ}C$. Parameters controlling the cementation process, such as temperature, pH and the effect of the additives were investigated.