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Steam gasification of epoxy circuit board in the presence of carbonates

  • SPECIAL FEATURE: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Chemical Feedstock Recycling 9
  • Published:
Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To recover useful metals from end-of-life electronic devices and to convert plastic components from these devices into clean fuel gas, steam gasification of epoxy board samples was carried out at 600–700 °C and 0.1 MPa pressure in the presence of a ternary eutectic carbonate (lithium carbonate, sodium carbonate, and potassium carbonate). Hydrogen and carbon dioxide were the main products, and methane and carbon monoxide were detected as minor products. The gasification proceeded in two steps: an initial rapid pyrolysis followed by secondary steam gasification of char produced from the pyrolysis. The ternary eutectic carbonate accelerated not only the latter steam gasification but also the initial rapid pyrolysis. The activation energy for the steam gasification of epoxy board samples in the presence of the carbonate was 122 kJ/mol.

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Abbreviations

\( \alpha_{i} \) :

Mole percentage of each gas (−)

i :

Component (e.g., H2, CO2, CH4)

k :

Reaction rate constant (1/min)

MC :

Amount of carbon in sample (mol)

MC0 :

Amount of carbon in initial sample (mol)

n :

Reaction order (−)

P steam :

Steam partial pressure (Pa)

r :

Gasification rate (mol/min)

t :

Time (min)

v :

Total gas flow rate (mol/min)

V i :

Gas formation rate (mol/min)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, G5-8, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8502, Japan

    Shangzhong Zhang

  2. Tokyo Institute of Technology, Frontier Research Center, G5-8, 4259 Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 226-8502, Japan

    Kunio Yoshikawa

  3. Faculty of Engineering, Chiba University, 1-22 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba, Chiba, 263-8522, Japan

    Hideki Nakagome

  4. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 16-1 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8569, Japan

    Tohru Kamo

Authors
  1. Shangzhong Zhang
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  2. Kunio Yoshikawa
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  3. Hideki Nakagome
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  4. Tohru Kamo
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Correspondence to Shangzhong Zhang.

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Zhang, S., Yoshikawa, K., Nakagome, H. et al. Steam gasification of epoxy circuit board in the presence of carbonates. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 14, 294–300 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-012-0057-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-012-0057-x

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