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7
th
International Conference on
Recycling and Waste Management
October 03-04, 2019 | Melbourne, Australia
Journal of Environmental Waste Management and Recycling | Volume: 02
Metal recovery from E-waste by innovative Hydrometallurgical Processes: GOLD-
REC and FENIX Projects
Vegliò F
University of L’Aquila, Italy
L
arge amounts of wastes are generated at the end-
of-life of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE).
Presently, at industrial level, the technologies used for
waste of electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) or
E-waste treatment are mostly focused on physical and
thermal processes. However, both of them have important
drawbacks; the physical procedures are able to achieve
only the partial separation of major elements, i.e. copper,
iron, aluminum; the thermal treatments require high
cost of investments. Till present the hydrometallurgical
processes, which are more efficient than physical ones
and less costly than thermal procedures, have been only
tested at laboratory scale levels. The main core of GOLD-
REC and Fenix projects, that are based on the development
of hydrometallurgical procedures for the recovery of both
precious and base metals fromwaste printed circuit boards
and not limited to, is to extend these procedures at larger
scale. Both developed procedures makes the object of two
international patent applications that are currently under
review. GOLD-REC hydrometallurgical flowsheet consist in
application of tow sequential leaching processes on the
preliminary physical-mechanical treated WPCBs. The first
leaching process make use of a diluted solution of sulfuric
acid and hydrogen peroxide in which the dissolution of
base metals (mainly copper) is achieved at an efficiency
of about 99% and about 40% of Ag. The second one,
that is applied on the solid residue of the first leaching
process, consist of precious metals (Au and residual Ag)
solubilization with thiourea as reagent, ferric sulfate as
oxidant and sulfuric acid as pH controlling agent and has
an efficiency of over 95%. In FENIX process a new reagents
mix is used for leaching step (HCl, acetic acid and H2O2).
Cu, Sn, Au and Ag are recovered by sequential cementation
steps. This process can be applied also to automotive
spent catalysts recovering 99% of Pd and 50% of Pt. Both
processes are of high interests and novelty in the field of
E-waste and spent catalyst recycling.
Speaker Biography
Vegliò F has completed his Master in Chemical Engineering at the age
of 25 years from University of L’Aquila, Italy. He is the Full Professor at
University of L’Aquila, Italy. He has over 200 publications that have been
cited over 5254 times, and his/ publication H-index is 40 and has been
serving as an editorial board member of reputed Journals.
e:
francesco.veglio@univaq.it