Abstract
Detailed techno-economic assessment of different scenarios of waste printed circuit board (PCB) metallurgical processing was carried out in the context of Australia. The results show that the cost of recycling waste PCB through black copper smelting at a small scale (10,000 tonnes/year) is estimated to be AU$ 5.33/kg waste PCB, with a likely revenue ranging from AU$7.3 to AU$9.3/kg waste PCB. The result also shows that a small-scale centralised recycling facility could provide a cumulative net benefit of AU$ 175 million with 76% IRR (Internal Rate of Return) over 20 years of plant life. The NPV (Net Present Value) of the scenario is highly sensitive to waste input capacity, feed material composition and the metal market price. Overall, the current study suggests that a small local waste PCB recycling plant is highly likely to be economically viable in the context of Australia based on the current assumptions in this study.
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