Abstract
Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) contains economically significant levels of precious, critical metals and rare earth elements, apart from base metals and other toxic compounds. Recycling and recovery of critical elements from WEEEs using a cost-effective technology are now one of the top priorities in metallurgy due to the rapid depletion of their natural resources. More than 150 publications on WEEE management, leaching and recovery of metals from WEEE were reviewed in this work, with special emphasize on the recent research (2015–2018). This paper summarizes the recent progress regarding various hydrometallurgical processes for the leaching of critical elements from WEEEs. Various methodologies and techniques for critical elements selective recovery (using ionic liquids, solvent extraction, electrowinning, adsorption, and precipitation) from the WEEEs leachates are discussed. Future prospects regarding the use of WEEEs as secondary resources for critical raw materials and its techno-economical and commercial beneficiaries are discussed.AbbreviationsE-WasteElectronic wasteWEEEWaste electrical and electronic equipmentCRMCritical raw materialsPCBPrinted circuit boardLCDLiquid crystal displayCRTCathode ray tubeFl. LampFluorescent lampHDDHard disk drivesLEDLight emitting diodeEUEuropean UnionUNEPUnited Nations Environmental ProgramREERare earth elementITOIndium-tin oxidePMPrecious metalNiMH batteryNickel-hydride batteryCPUCentral processing unitRAMRandom access memoryLiBsLi-ion batteriesSFLSpent fluorescent lamps
Highlights
Enormous amounts of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are being generated in recent years
Mechanism and kinetic of adsorption of Precious metal (PM) and rare earth elements (REE) from leachate have been investigated by researchers in batch mode using a number of parameters that can potentially influence the efficiency of the adsorption process: namely, pH, temperature, initial metal concentration, time and agitation rate (Syed, 2012; Kucuker, Nadal, & Kuchta, 2016)
Leaching and selective recovery of the heavy metals is the best solution to meet the growing critical raw materials demands and to reduce the environmental impacts caused by the WEEEs in the environment
Summary
Enormous amounts of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) are being generated in recent years. Recovery of REE, critical and precious elements bearing WEEEs such as waste printed circuit boards, waste liquid crystal displays, spent cathode ray tubes, spent fluorescent lamps, waste hard disk drives, spent light emitting diodes and spent batteries are given a special attention. Their elemental composition and various hydrometallurgical (leaching and recovery phases) operations proposed for the recovery of critical elements are reviewed
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