Pyrolysis of waste electrical and electronic equipment (weee) for recovering metals and energy: previous achievements and current approaches

Peter Hense1,2,4, Katharina Reh1, Matthias Franke1, Jonathan Aigner1, Andreas Hornung1,2,4,3, Andrea Contin2,4

1 Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Institute Branch Sulzbach-Rosenberg, 1 An der Maxh tte, 92237 Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany
2 Alma Mater Studiorum - Universit di Bologna, CIRI Energia e Ambiente, 33 Via Zamboni, 40126 Bologna, Italy
3 School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, Birmingham, UK
4 Alma Mater Studiorum - Universit di Bologna, CIRI Energia e Ambiente, 33 Via Zamboni, 40126 Bologna, Italy

Abstract


The amount of collected Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) in Europe is growing about 7 wt.-% per year (20072012). It contains a number of economically relevant base, precious and high-tech metals. However, only a limited number of these metals can be recovered by currently applied recycling processes. Especially high-tech metals like gallium, germanium and tantalum get lost during the treatment of WEEE. The pyrolysis technology allows an accumulation of these metals from WEEE-fractions without oxidation as well as the generation of high calorific gases and liquids for energetic utilization. This paper provides a literature based review of lab and medium-scale investigations on pyrolysis processes of different WEEE-fractions like printed wiring boards (PWB) or plastics to outline opportunities and challenges for recovering critical metals from WEEE via pyrolysis. The key procedural challenges are dehalogenation, avoidance of highly-toxic emissions (mainly PBDD/F) as well as preparation and accumulation of metals for recycling processes.

Keywords


critical metals; metal recycling; pyrolysis; WEEE

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