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Developing Feasible Processes for the Total Recycling of WEEE to Recover Rare Metals

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Rare Metal Technology 2021

Abstract

The present paper reports several application-oriented processes developed for the recovery of various non-ferrous (Cu, Ni, Al, Pb, Sn), rare (Li, Co, In), precious (Au, Ag, Pt, and Pd), and rare earth metals (Nd, Ce, La, Y, Eu) from various urban ores, i.e., waste electrical and electronic equipments (WEEE), liquid crystal displays (LCD), batteries, magnets, fluorescent tubes, etc. Initially, the WEEE and various wastes were classified and dismantled. Further, the materials were pretreated to separate plastics, epoxy, ceramics, rubber, iron cover, and metallic concentrates. Based on their properties, plastic, epoxy and rubber could be either pyrolysed for production of marketable low-density oil and saleable activated carbon or directly recycled. The pre-treated metallic concentrates were processed by hydrometallurgical techniques, i.e., leaching, solvent extraction, ion-exchange, electro-winning for maximum recovery of metals. Various flow sheets discussed for rare metal extraction and processing strictly comply with environmental regulations.

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Acknowledgements

The processes are developed under the joint Indo-Korean collaborations, Korean Internship programmes, support from Indian recycling industries and CSIR-New Delhi initiatives. The permission of Director, CSIR-NML, Jamshedpur, India to publish this paper is also highly acknowledged by authors.

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Correspondence to Jae-chun Lee .

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Lee, Jc., Jha, M.K., Panda, R., Choubey, P.K., Kumari, A., Kim, T.G. (2021). Developing Feasible Processes for the Total Recycling of WEEE to Recover Rare Metals. In: Azimi, G., et al. Rare Metal Technology 2021. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65489-4_20

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