Characterization and mechanical separation of metals from computer Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) based on mineral processing methods.

In this paper, a novel mechanical process is proposed for enriching metal content of computer Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs). The PCBs are crushed and divided into three different size fractions namely: -0.59, +0.59 to 1.68 and +1.68 mm. Wet jigging and froth flotation methods are selected for metal enrichment. The coarse size fraction (+1.68 mm) is processed by jigging. The plastic free product is grinded and screened. The oversized product is separated as the first concentrate. It was rich of metal because the grinding process was selective. The undersized product is processed by froth flotation. Based on the obtained results, the middle size fraction (+0.59 to 1.68 mm) and the small size fraction (-0.59 mm) are processed by wet jigging and froth flotation respectively. The wet jigging process is optimized by investigating the effect of pulsation frequency and water flow rate. The results of examining the effect of particle size, solid to liquid ratio, conditioning time and using apolar collector showed that collectorless flotation is a promising method for separating nonmetals of PCBs. 95.6%, 97.5% and 85% of metal content of coarse size, middle size and small size fraction are recovered. The grades of obtained concentrates were 63.3%, 92.5% and 75% respectively. The total recovery is calculated as 95.64% and the grade of the final concentrate was 71.26%. Determining the grade of copper and gold in the final product reveals that 4.95% of copper and 24.46% of gold are lost during the concentration. The major part of the lost gold is accumulated in froth flotation tail.

Process development for recovery of copper and precious metals from waste printed circuit boards with emphasize on palladium and gold leaching and precipitation.

A novel hydrometallurgical process was proposed for selective recovery of Cu, Ag, Au and Pd from waste printed circuit boards (PCBs). More than 99% of copper content was dissolved by using two consecutive sulfuric acid leaching steps in the presence of H2O2 as oxidizing agents. The solid residue of 2nd leaching step was treated by acidic thiourea in the presence of ferric iron as oxidizing agent and 85.76% Au and 71.36% Ag dissolution was achieved. The precipitation of Au and Ag from acidic thiourea leachate was investigated by using different amounts of sodium borohydride (SBH) as a reducing agent. The leaching of Pd and remained gold from the solid reside of 3rd leaching step was performed in NaClO-HCl-H2O2 leaching system and the effect of different parameters was investigated. The leaching of Pd and specially Au increased by increasing the NaClO concentration up to 10V% and any further increasing the NaClO concentration has a negligible effect. The leaching of Pd and Au increased by increasing the HCl concentration from 2.5 to 5M. The leaching of Pd and Au were endothermic and raising the temperature had a positive effect on leaching efficiency. The kinetics of Pd leaching was quite fast and after 30min complete leaching of Pd was achieved, while the leaching of Au need a longer contact time. The best conditions for leaching of Pd and Au in NaClO-HCl-H2O2 leaching system were determined to be 5M HCl, 1V% H2O2, 10V% NaClO at 336K for 3h with a solid/liquid ratio of 1/10. 100% of Pd and Au of what was in the chloride leachate were precipitated by using 2g/L SBH. Finally, a process flow sheet for the recovery of Cu, Ag, Au and Pd from PCB was proposed.

Equilibrium and kinetic studies on free cyanide adsorption from aqueous solution by activated carbon.

Adsorption equilibrium and kinetics of free cyanide onto activated carbon were investigated in the batch tests, and the effects of contact time (1-72 h) and initial cyanide concentrations in the range of 102-532 mg/L were studied. Linear regression was used to determine the best fit of equilibrium and kinetics expressions. The two-parameter models including Freundlich, Dubinin-Radushkevich, Temkin and four different linearized forms of Langmuir and three-parameter models including Redlich-Peterson and Koble-Corrigan were employed for fitting the equilibrium data and it was found that, three-parameter models fitted the data better than the two-parameter models and among the three-parameter models the equilibrium data are best represented by Koble-Corrigan model. A number of kinetic models including fractional power, zero order, first order, pseudo-first order, Elovich, second order, intraparticle diffusion and four different linearized forms of pseudo-second order models were tested to fit the kinetic data. The latter was found to be consistent with the data. Intraparticle diffusion plots show that the adsorption process of free cyanide is a two steps process. In the first step, the adsorption of cyanide is fast while in the second step, cyanide adsorption slows down.