Metal Recovery from Electronic Waste: Biological Versus Chemical Leaching for Recovery of Copper and Gold

271 Pages·2018·11.524 MB·\271

by  Arda Işildar (Author)

METAL RECOVERY FROM
ELECTRONIC WASTE: TWO-STEP
BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL
LEACHING FOR THE RECOVERY
OF COPPER AND GOLD FROM
ELECTRONIC WASTE

Arda Işıldar

Joint PhD degree in Environmental Technology

Docteur de l’Université Paris-Est
Spécialité : Science et Tech nique de l’Environnement

Dottore di Ricerca in Tecnologie Ambientali

Degree of Doctor in Environmental Technology

Tesi di Dottorato – Thèse – PhD thesis

Arda Işıldar

Two-step biological and chemical leaching for the recovery of copper and
gold from electronic waste
th
Defended on November 18 , 2016

In front of the PhD committee

Professor Erkan Şahinkaya Reviewer
Associate Professor Jaco Huisman Reviewer
Associate Professor Ester van der Voet Reviewer
Doctor Fritz Holzwarth Examiner
Professor Piet N. L. Lens Promotor
Associate Professor Eric D. van Hullebusch Co-Promotor
Associate Professor Giovanni Esposito Co-Promotor
Thesis committee:
Thesis Promotor:
Prof. Dr. ir. Piet N. L. Lens
Professor of Biotechnology
UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands
Thesis Co-promotors:
Dr. Hab. Eric D. van Hullebusch
Hab. Associate Professor of Biogeochemistry
Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, Paris, France
Dr. Giovanni Esposito
Associate Professor of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering
Università degli Studi di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Cassino, Italy
Other members:
Prof. Erkan Şahinkaya
Professor of Environmental Engineering
Faculty of Bioengineering, Istanbul Medeniyet Üniversitesi, Istanbul, Turkey
Dr. Jaco Huisman
Associate Professor of Design for Sustainability and Product Innovation Management
Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft, Delft, the Netherlands
Dr. Ester van der Voet
Associate Professor of Industrial Ecology
Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
Dr. Fritz Holzwarth
Rector ad interim of UNESCO-IHE
UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands

This research was conducted under the auspices of Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate
Environmental Technologies for Contaminated Solids, Solids and Sediments (ETeCoS3) and
the Graduate School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE)
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© 2018, Arda IŞILDAR

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Acknowledgments
This PhD work would have not been successfully and joyfully completed without the
contributions of many exceptional people, who made this research a life experience rather than
a mere research project.
My sincere gratitude goes to my promoter Prof. Piet N.L. Lens who acutely dedicated his time,
effort and valuable experience to this particular research project. My academic path and
learning journey would not have shaped without his indispensable mentorship, training and
guidance.
When it comes to gratitude, my co-promoter Prof. Eric D. van Hullebusch deserves a special
reservation, who undeniably formed my professional development and helped me open many
new frontiers in my career. Without doubts, Eric will remain a lifelong counsel, an esteemed
colleague, and a friend, beyond this PhD project.
The contribution of Dr. Eldon Rene shaped the skeleton of this PhD work and bequeathed
virtually all parts of this journey. His outstanding ability to balance professionalism and
extracurricular activities made an excellent example of an esteemed researcher and chemical
engineer. Dr. Jack van de Vossenberg was a source of inspiration, without whom this work
would have not been completed, and a keen, detail-oriented, critical reviewer of scientific
findings.
Dr. Venkata Nancharaiah Yarlagadda facilitated the laboratory sessions in the best way any
PhD fellow can dream of. Prof. Giovanni Esposito was always promptly available for any issue
that may rise, and organized the enjoyable Summer School evenings in Cassino. Thank you,
Giovanni, for coordinating the ETeCoS3 programme.
The data would have not been accurately delivered without the tireless support of Ferdi, Peter
Frank, Berend, Fred in Delft, and Chloé and Yoan in Paris. Especially the impressive teamwork
of the UNESCO-IHE lab staff showed that a whole was more than the sum of its individual
parts.
I had the exceptional privilege to work with excellent M.Sc. students Bienvenu Mizero, Thresa
Musongo, Marco Villares, Yaowen Wang, and Nuria Caseres. Neither the data would have been
comprehensive, nor the discussion would have been in-depth without their valuable
contribution. Special thanks go to Mr. Marco Villares, who not only shaped the course of this
Acknowledgements | xii

PhD work but also became an indispensable companion in professional and off-work
environments.
Many thanks to all the ETeCoS3 and ABWET colleagues; Chiara, Joy, Rohan, Suthee, Carlos,
Susma, Anna, Manivannan, Lucian, Joana, Clement, Soliu, Douglas, Francesco, Ludovico,
Kirki, Lea, Shrutika, Suchanya, Anna, who are not only fellow researchers but also friends and
a source of a collective aura. The Summer Schools would have not been the same without the
spontaneous sangria parties. Friends scattered around cities; Eirini, Iosif, Marco, Chris, Paulo,
Mohaned, Alex, Poolad, Paolo, Maria, Sanaz, Ali, Germana, Angélica, Paulo, Maria, Nico,
Veronica, Xiaoxia, Alessandra, Ekin, Omar, I celebrate our lifelong friendship built on
invaluable memories acquired in Delft, Leiden, Paris and Cassino.
Special thanks go to the colleagues at SIMS Recycling in Eindhoven, and at UNESCO-IHE IT
department, colleagues at UNESCO-IHE, and the citizens of city of Delft for kindly providing
the WEEE samples. And finally, I would like to address my appreciation to the sponsor of this
work, the European Commission, which financially supported the project.
Summary
The well-being of the society depends on a number of metals, including base metals, precious
metals and increasingly rare earth elements (REE). The usage of these metals increased in
numerous applications, including electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), and their
interrupted supply is at stake. There is an increasing interest in the secondary sources of these
metals, particularly waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in order to compensate
their potential supply deficit. This PhD thesis demonstrates the advantages and bottlenecks of
biological and chemical approaches, as well as the advances and perspectives in the
development of sustainable processes for metal recovery from WEEE. Furthermore, a novel
process for the recovery of metals from WEEE is described, and a techno-economic assessment
is given.
Discarded printed circuit boards (PCB) from personal computers (PC), laptops, mobile phones
and telecom servers were studied. Following an extensive literature review, a novel
characterization and total metal assay method was introduced and applied to waste board
materials. Discarded PCB contained metals in the range of (%, by weight): copper (Cu) 17.6 -
39.0, iron (Fe) 0.7 - 7.5, aluminum (Al) 1.0 - 5.5, nickel (Ni) 0.2 - 1.1, zinc (Zn) 0.3 - 1.2, as
well as gold (Au) (in ppm) 21 - 320. In addition, multi-criteria analysis (MCA) using the
analytical hierarchical process (AHP) methodology was applied for selection of the best-suited
technology. A proof-of-concept for a two-step bioleaching extraction is given, in which 98.4%
and 44.0% of the Cu and Au, respectively, were extracted. The two-step extraction procedure
was applied to the chemical leaching of metals from PCB. Cu leaching was carried in an acidic
oxidative mixture of H2SO4 and H2O2, whereas Au was leached by in a medium,
2− +
catalyzed by CuSO4. Under the optimized conditions, 99.2% andS 29O23.2% ofN CHu4 and Au,
respectively, were extracted from the board material. Selective recovery of Cu from the
bioleaching leachate using sulfidic precipitation and electrowinning is studied. Cu was
selectively recovered on the cathode electrode at a 50 mA current density in 50 minutes, with a
97.8% efficiency and 65.0% purity. The techno-economic analysis and environmental
sustainability assessment of the new technology at an early stage of development was
investigated.