• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.74-81
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• 2019

Upcycling generally refers to the conversion of waste materials to something useful or valuable and is a useful concept that can be applied not only to the waste design industry but also to waste recycling and resource circulation. Our study highlights upcycling as the key concept for improving the value of waste by redefining the concept as "the recycling of waste materials and discarded products in ways that enhance their value." Four upcycling strategies are linked to material flow analyses conducted on waste electronic and electrical equipment, specifically waste refrigerators and waste computers, to examine the technologies available for implementation and suggest guidelines for the promotion of upcycling. The amount of waste refrigerators collected by the formal sector was 121,642 tons/y and the informal sector, 63,823 tons/y. The current recycling ratio of waste refrigerators was estimated as 88.53%. A total of 7,585 tons/y of waste computers were collected by the formal sector and 3,807 tons/y by the informal sector after discharge. Meanwhile, the current recycling ratio of waste computers was estimated as 77.43%. We found that it is possible to introduce 28 upcycling technologies in the case of refrigerators, and 15 technologies are available to promote upcycling in the case of computers. By refining the broad concept of upcycling and looking at the stages of material flow, our approach presents universally applicable directions for incorporating upcycling in resource recovery and recirculation plans.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.342-351
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• 2021

Because of its unique properties, tungsten is a strategic and rare metal used in various industrial applications. However, the world's annual production of tungsten is only 84000 t. Ammonium paratungstate (APT), which is used as the main intermediate in industrial tungsten production, is usually obtained from tungsten concentrates of wolframite and scheelite by hydrometallurgical treatment. Intermediates such as tungsten trioxide, tungsten blue oxide, tungstic acid, and ammonium metatungstate can be derived from APT by thermal decomposition or chemical attack. Tungsten metal powder is produced through the hydrogen reduction of high-purity tungsten oxides, and tungsten carbide powder is produced by the reaction of tungsten powder and carbon black powder at 1300-1700℃ in a hydrogen atmosphere. Tungsten scrap can be divided into hard and soft scrap based on shape (bulk or powder). It can also be divided into new scrap generated during the production of tungsten-bearing goods and old scrap collected at the end of life. Recycling technologies for tungsten can be divided into four main groups: direct, chemical, and semi-direct recycling, and melting metallurgy. In this review, the current status of tungsten smelting and recycling technologies is discussed.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.16 no.3 s.77
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• pp.50-60
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• 2007

There are several kinds of battery such as zinc-air battery, lithium battery, Manganese dry battery, silver oxide battery, mercury battery, sodium-sulphur battery, lead battery, nickel-hydrogen secondary battery, nickel-cadmium battery, lithium ion battery, alkaline battery, etc. These days it has been widely studied for the recycling technologies of the used battery from view points of economy and efficiency. In this paper, patents on the recycling technologies of the used lithium battery were analyzed. The range of search was limited in the open patents of USA(US), European Union(EP), Japan(JP), and Korea(KR) from 1986 to 2006. Patents were collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents was analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.76-84
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• 2008

There are several kinds of battery such as zinc-air battery, lithium battery, manganese dry battery, silver oxide battery, mercury battery, sodium-sulphur battery, lead battery, nickel-hydrogen secondary battery, nickel-cadmium battery, lithium ion battery and alkaline battery, etc. These days it has been widely studied for the recycling technologies of the used battery from view points of economy and efficiency. In this paper, patents on the recycling technologies of the used manganese dry battery were analyzed. The range of search was limited in the open patents of USA (US), European Union (EP), Japan (JP), and Korea (KR) from 1986 to 2006. Patents were collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents were analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.66-76
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• 2008

Silicon wafer is used in making semiconductor device of various forms in the semiconductor industry. Silicon wafer is produced by cutting silicon ingot and sludge containing silicon results from cutting process. The amount of silicon sludge is increasing owing to the usage of semiconductor device in many industry sectors. These days the recycling technologies of the waste silicon sludge has been widely studied from view point of economy and efficiency. In this study, patents on the recycling technologies of the waste silicon sludge were analyzed. The range of search was limited in the open patents of USA, European Union, Japan, and Korea up to september, 2007. Patents were collected using key-words and filtered by filtering criteria. The trend of the patents was analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.63-70
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• 2013

There are generated the hundreds of tons of waste electric wire per year due to replace for increase transmission capacity and/or replacement of old electric wire by Korea's national power grid and/or private industrial factories. Recently, the wire recycling technologies studied extensively in terms of effieiency by of economic aspects and environment aspects. In this paper, the patents and papers for the recycling technologies of spent electric wire were collected and analyzed. The range of search was limited in the open patents of USA (US), European Union (EP), Japan (JP), Korea (KR) and SCI journals from 1975 to 2011. Patents and journals were collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents and journals were analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.58-67
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• 2009

The annual requirement of domestic waste photoresist stripper solution is about 1 trillion won level (50,000 tons) depends entirely on imports for its supplies. Nevertheless, there waste strippers which contain the impurities have been recycled or incinerated to a low level of recycle. These days the recycling technologies of the waste stripper solution has been widely studied from the view points of economy and efficiency. In this paper, the recycling technologies on patent of the waste stripper solution were analyzed. The range of search was limited within the open patents of USA (US), European Union (EP), Japan (JP), and Korea (KR) up to september, 2007. Patents have been collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents was analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.82-92
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• 2012

There are several kinds of tungsten carbide(WC) such as light bulbs, metal cutting tools, drill bits, mining tools, military ordinance, high speed tool steels, chemicals/catalysts, wear resistance parts, jet engine turbine blades, etc.. These days it has been widely studied for the recycling technologies of the used tungsten carbide(WC) from view points of economy and efficiency. In this paper, open/registered patents of US, JP, EP, and KR and SCI Journal related to recycling technologies of the used Tungsten Carbide(WC) between 1969-2011 were reviewed. Patents and papers were collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents and papers was analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• 환경사랑
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• s.52
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• pp.6-6
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• 2008

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.72-79
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• 2013

There is increasing interest to the development of environmental friendly products related global environment and health issue and it is very important technology for recycling contained hazardous substance that occur due to oxidation during used oils and fats of vegetable and animal to eco-friendly products. In this study, papers and patents for recycling technologies of used fat and vegetable oil as monomers were analyzed. The range of search was limited in the open patents of USA (US), European Union (EP), Japan (JP), Korea (KR) and SCI journals from 1976 to 2012. Patents and journals were collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents and journals were analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies. Such pretreatment purification, polymerization for monomer, and polymer manufacturing technology were ahead of the United States.