Abstract
Waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) can be bioleached for Cu recovery, but lack of substrate for the bioleaching culture. In this study, using pyrite as a bacterial substrate for bioleaching WPCBs and recovering Cu was explored. The results showed that the WPCBs bioleaching using pyrite as the bacterial substrate was feasible. Mechanical crushing was a suitable WPCBs pretreatment method. The optimal WPCBs and pyrite pulp densities were respectively found to be 1.25% (w/v) and 1.0% (w/v), and the suitable nitrogen source ratio ((NH4)2SO4: (NH4)2HPO4) was deemed as 2 g/L: 2 g/L, achieving a Cu2+ leaching efficiency of 95.60 ± 1.57% in 14 d. Copper in the bioleaching solution can be directly recovery via electrodeposition. The Cu recovery efficiency in 60 min was up to 92.19 ± 1.35% under the optimal condition that the initial Cu2+ concentration and pH were respectively set at 7.34 g/L and 2.75, and the current density was set at 200 A/m2. Copper was found as the dominant metal in the cathode deposits, existing in the form of Cu and Cu2O. This work provided a novel approach for bioleaching WPCBs and recovering Cu.
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This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21577108).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Zexiang Xie: Methodology, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Qaisar Mahmood: Writing – review & editing. Shaohui Zhang: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Xie, Z., Mahmood, Q. & Zhang, S. Copper recovery from waste printed circuit boards using pyrite as the bioleaching substrate. Environ Sci Pollut Res (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33536-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-33536-y