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Recovery of heavy metals from waste printed circuit boards: statistical optimization of leaching and residue characterization

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Abstract

Despite attempts to enhance the recycling of waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs), the simultaneous recovery of major metals of WPCBs using an efficient approach is still a great challenge. This study mainly concerned with applying an effective statistical tool to optimize the recovery of metal content (i.e., Cu, Fe, Zn, Pb, Ni, Sn, and Al) embedded in WPCBs using a leaching agent without any additive or oxidative agent. Another target was to optimize a multi-response recovery process by minimizing time, energy, and acid consumption during the leaching. Effective parameters and their levels, including leaching time (20–60 min), temperature (25–45 °C), solid to liquid (S/L) ratio (1/8–1/20 g/ml), and acid molarity (1–2.7 M), were optimized. A well-established statistical approach (i.e., response surface methodology (RSM)) was applied to precisely quantify and interpret the effects. General optimum conditions for nine responses were introduced with the desirability of ≈ 85%. Finally, the solid residue of leaching was characterized and results showed the morphology, structure, and composition of the residue content (i.e., polymers and ceramics) remained the same after the leaching, indicating the neutral behavior of the leaching process on these two materials. Also, thermal behavior and phase analysis of the original WPCBs and leaching residue were compared and analyzed.

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Acknowledgments

We thankfully acknowledge the technical support by Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre (MWAC) especially Solid State & Elemental Analysis Unit and Electron Microscopy Unit (EMU) at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

Funding

The financial support for this research was provided by the Australian Research Council through Laureate Fellowship FL140100215.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT), School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, 2052, Australia

    Rasoul Khayyam Nekouei, Farshid Pahlevani, Mohammad Assefi, Ravindra Rajarao & Veena Sahajwalla

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia

    Rabeeh Golmohammadzadeh

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, 2052, Australia

    Yen-Hao Chen

Authors
  1. Rasoul Khayyam Nekouei
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  2. Farshid Pahlevani
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  3. Rabeeh Golmohammadzadeh
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  4. Mohammad Assefi
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  5. Ravindra Rajarao
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  6. Yen-Hao Chen
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  7. Veena Sahajwalla
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rasoul Khayyam Nekouei.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Highlights

- Applying a statistical tool (design of experiments) to optimize the removal of all heavy metals embedded in waste printed circuit boards.

- Minimizing processing time, energy, and consumed chemical agent without any additive or oxidative agent in order to reduce environmental impacts.

- Proving the stability of leaching residue (i.e., ceramic and polymer content) during the removal step of heavy metals.

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Khayyam Nekouei, R., Pahlevani, F., Golmohammadzadeh, R. et al. Recovery of heavy metals from waste printed circuit boards: statistical optimization of leaching and residue characterization. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 24417–24429 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05596-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05596-y

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