Abstract
The significant environmental, economic and social aspects following an End-of-Life Printed Circuit Boards (EoL PCBs) treatment have attracted the interest of research and the industrial community. Interest focused on sustainable engineering approaches, allowing the recovery of valuable materials contained. Extensive research work and literature reviews are dedicated to applying processes derived from mineral processing and the metallurgical domain to treat the specific waste stream. The industrial need for separation technology for fine and ultra-fine particles recently led to a new process, insufficiently tested yet in the column flotation process. Considering the specific research gap, as well as the capabilities of separation processes, systematic research work concerning the application of column flotation in the treatment of EoL PCBs fine particles has been initiated. An ad hoc apparatus has been designed and developed. Outcoming experimental results and their following analysis reveal the potential of column flotation deployment in treating fine particles of EoL PCBs as a pre-treatment process. Factual mathematical models describing base metals response (aluminium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc) during the column flotation process were developed and are introduced in the present research paper.
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