Recycling

Biography

Biography: Szabolcs Fogarasi

Abstract

In the recent years, recycling technologies were focusing on the recovery of Cu from waste Printed Circuit Boards (WPCBs), due to the high economic potential and eco-toxicity of copper found in relatively high concentration in WPCBs. However, many recycling technologies do not offer an overall treatment of WPCBs, leaving behind unprocessed fractions like WPCBBs (Waste Printed Circuit Base Boards = electronic component free WPCBs) which could be used for further Cu production. Therefore, the current study presents an original and environmental friendly technological solution for the separation of Cu and non-metallic fractions found in WPCBBs followed by the recovery of a high purity metallic Cu through electrochemical processing. The obtained results revealed the influence of the main operating parameters (current density, temperature, etc.) on the most important technical key performance indicators. One of the major advantages of the developed process consists in the recycling and regeneration of the materials used in the process, reducing significantly the use of auxiliary materials and the amount of new reagents fed to the process. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that the separation of high purity Cu and non-metallic fractions found in WPCBBs has an overall low environmental impact and high efficiency.