Abstract
There is a growing interest in electronic wastes (e-wastes) recycling for metal recovery because the fast depletion of worldwide reserves for primary resources is gradually becoming a matter of concern. E-wastes contain metals with a concentration higher than that present in the primary ores, which renders them as an apt resource for metal recovery. Owing to such aspects, research is progressing well to address several issues related to e-waste recycling for metal recovery through both chemical and biological routes. Base metals, for example, Cu, Ni, Zn, Al, etc., can be easily leached out through the typical chemical (with higher kinetics) and microbial (with eco-friendly benefits) routes under ambient temperature conditions in contrast to other metals. This feature makes them the most suitable candidates to be targeted primarily for metal leaching from these waste streams. Hence, the current piece of review aims at providing updated information pertinent to e-waste recycling through chemical and microbial treatment methods. Individual process routes are compared and reviewed with focus on non-ferrous metal leaching (with particular emphasis on base metals dissolution) from some selected e-waste streams. Future outlooks are discussed on the suitability of these two important extractive metallurgical routes for e-waste recycling at a scale-up level along with concluding remarks.
Highlights
The concomitant increment in metal demand and paucity of primary resources is an emerging challenge for valuable metal production [1,2]
E-waste or the waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) consists of several parts including sub-assemblies and consumables that remain a part of the product at the time of disposal [8]
Several bioleaching studies have been undertaken on metal extraction from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) by using autotrophic acidophiles [112,150] and heterotrophic microorganisms [112,139,151,152]
Summary
The concomitant increment in metal demand and paucity of primary resources is an emerging challenge for valuable metal production [1,2]. It is a rich source of valuable materials, which can be extracted from it judiciously for several applications [9,10,11] In this regard, sustainable recycling processes would assist in increasing the metal production, while at the same time, addressing the environmental and health problems associated with hazardous wastes [5]. The recycling of metals from e-wastes in a resourceful and environmentally feasible manner would assist in meeting the inadequacy of several valuable metals that have applications in technological development [20,21] In this aspect, hydrometallurgical recycling techniques, e.g., the leaching of metals using chemicals and/or biological (re)agents have gained rapid momentum over the years [22,23]. “Fungal bioleaching”, “Heterotrophic bioleaching”, “Authotrophic bioleaching”, “E-waste circular economy”, etc., were used
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