Journal of Pollution Effects & Control
Open Access
ISSN: 2375-4397
ISSN: 2375-4397
Ajiteru OA and Bamidele EA
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Pollut Eff Cont
In the worldâ??s quest to conquer global warming due to climate change and preserve the environment for general sustainability, the need to investigate the most effective recycling methods for used electronic equipment (e-waste) which are at the forefront of worldâ??s solid waste streams is imminent. This equipment contains printed circuits boards (PCBs) that are basically made of precious metals such as copper (Cu), lead (Pb), aluminium (Al), gold (Au), silver (Ag) and palladium (Pd). There has been an ongoing research in hydrometallurgy to recover this metals in their purest form via selective leaching operation. However, even though some of these metals have been reclaimed over the years but the problems of obtaining a very high purity remain unsolved and this requires urgent attention. This work focuses on increasing percentage purity of metals that can be obtained from PCBs by critically studying and analyzing the leaching operations. The methods used in this study included characterization of the PCBs via sorting, shredding and magnetic separation. Combined chemical leaching and bioleaching were done followed by the recovery of the metals via electrochemical processes. Sulfuric acid was used as the leaching agent with optimized leaching parameters e.g. time and concentration of the leachant. After comprehensive and detailed analysis of the experimentation results, it was observed that the PCBs composition was 80.7wt.% of the non-magnetic material and 19.3wt.% of magnetic one. Also, 90wt.% of Al, 40wt.% of Zn and 8.6wt.% were obtained. The leaching process showed an improved operation as a result of optimized parameters.
E-mail: ajiteruoluwaniyi@gmail.com