Developing Feasible Processes for the Total Recycling of WEEE to Recover Rare Metals

The present paper reports several application-oriented processes developed for the recovery of various non-ferrous (Cu, Ni, Al, Pb, Sn), rare (Li, Co, In), precious (Au, Ag, Pt, and Pd), and rare earth metals (Nd, Ce, La, Y, Eu) from various urban ores, i.e., waste electrical and electronic equipments (WEEE), liquid crystal displays (LCD), batteries, magnets, fluorescent tubes, etc. Initially, the WEEE and various wastes were classified and dismantled. Further, the materials were pretreated to separate plastics, epoxy, ceramics, rubber, iron cover, and metallic concentrates. Based on their properties, plastic, epoxy and rubber could be either pyrolysed for production of marketable low-density oil and saleable activated carbon or directly recycled. The pre-treated metallic concentrates were processed by hydrometallurgical techniques, i.e., leaching, solvent extraction, ion-exchange, electro-winning for maximum recovery of metals. Various flow sheets discussed for rare metal extraction and processing strictly comply with environmental regulations.