e-waste management: An integrated approach

A brief note on the present & proposed technology &

capabilities at Ecoreco

Ecoreco is a well established e-waste management company having its

office in Mumbai and the e-waste recovery facility in Vasai in Thane
district of Maharashtra.

Ecoreco is playing a significant role in organizing the e-waste collection

& disposal drive over & above the wonderful awareness campaign and
in turn reducing the burden of wastes ending in landfills.

Ecoreco’s present activities may be listed as under:

• Collection of e-waste
• Disassembly
• Shredding
• Magnetic separation of steels
• Separation of plastics
• Cable stripping for metal separation

Going forward, Ecoreco proposes to add the following:

• Automatic recovery of valuable components from the PCBs

• Deploying Eddy Current & Cyclonic separator for aluminum &
plastic
• Precious metal recovery from PCBs
• Energy recovery from PCBs

With the addition of the above, Ecoreco will have in house capability to
recover precious metals from the e-waste. The under mentioned
methodology for recovery of various precious metals from the e-waste
is a tremendous value addition both for the Ecoreco & India. Since, it is
completely a scientific process and hence will help India to overcome
the negative impacts on the health of the so called Kabadies, who
burns cables & PCBs & also dilute them in acids to separate metals
from these highly complicated components.

After finding the details of the other methods, Ecoreco realized that the
methods available are not sufficient or efficient enough to incorporate
into the process stream of Ecoreco as most of the methods available
commercially are based on melting the motherboards along with the
components and then burning the plastic to recover a mixed mass of
metals. The mixed masses of metals are then processed using
conventional metallurgical methods. The above process is highly
energy intensive, low on environmental safety and hence not looked
upon as an advanced method of metal recovery using environmentally
safe and sound methods having a low carbon footprint. To overcome
the environmental, health & safety issues, Ecoreco had taken upon
itself to develop modern methods of metal recovery without
contributing to environmental pollution. Ecoreco’s Endeavour had been
to follow low energy methods having a low carbon foot print and
develop environmentally safe and sound methods for the e-waste
management.

ISSUES INVOLVED WITH METAL RECOVERY

The following are the various issues that were studied to arrive at a
suitable methodology for the recovery of metals and plastics from the
e-waste:

1. Removal of components from the motherboards

2. Recovery of solder from the motherboards
3. Removal of silicon from chips
4. Removal of copper from motherboard
5. Removal and recycling of fiberglass motherboard material
6. Recovery of copper from components
7. Recovery of precious metals from the components

The major problem with the motherboard is that the motherboard is

made of multiple layers of fiberglass stuck together with highly
adhesive resins. The motherboard and the resins have been
manufactured to withstand high temperatures. Thus, any process to
recover and recycle the Motherboard would pose a challenge due its
high temperature resistance.

Similarly, the recovery of copper from motherboard is also a problem

as the copper layer is installed in between two fiberglass layers and it’s
not the open layer. In order to recover the copper layer, fiberglass
layers must be first separated.

The problem with chips will pose another significant problem as the
chips are made up of silica which is hard, abrasive and highly
temperature resistant. Thus any method involving the removal of
metals from the silicon embedded chips, will involve either high
temperature or precision grinding using diamond grinders.

The precious metal recovery is also a problem as the metal content is

very low to start with. In order to recover any significant quantity, a
high volume of components must be processed. Further, any thermal
process involving metals will lead to the formation of a mixture of
metals which needs to be separated using conventional metallurgical
methods. These methods are not advanced, environmentally friendly
and they are high on energy consumption.

All these issues have been studied in detail and the properties of each
of the component in the e-waste have been ascertained. A dedicated
method for the processing of e-waste had then been devised.

Using the new methodology, the following steps have been devised for
the recovery of metals and recycling of e-waste in an environmentally
friendly process:

1. recovery of components from motherboards

2. recovery of solder from motherboards
3. magnetic separation of free ferrous materials
4. eddy current separation of free non-ferrous materials
5. recovery of motherboard free of components and solder
6. precious grinding of loose components such as chips, LCDs
etc
7. recovery of silica and metals using a cyclone method
8. collection of metals for further processing
9. boiling point separation of metals in specially designed
reactors
10. motherboard reprocessing through pyro-catalysis and /or
fusion method for re-use of fiberglass

The above methods are developed to recover the following:

1. recovery of components
2. recovery of precious metals
3. recovery of copper and ferrous materials
4. recovery of silica

The plastics recovered from the process have a re-cycle value and thus
not included in any processing as above. The next chapters will discuss
each process separately to describe the entire process in detail.

MOTHERBOARD PROCESSING

Motherboards are the most difficult materials for processing in the e-

waste. They contain host of materials & components but to unravel a
motherboard is the most important operation in the recovery of
metals.

Overall, they are made up of a lot of different composites:

Motherboard –
 • fiberglass, phenolic resin, epoxy resin, tin, copper (board and
cladding and internal power / ground planes / wire traces),
• tin, and antimony and /or cadmium, and possibly lead (solder),
• rosin and /or ammonium chloride (flux),
• brass /gold / silver (contacts),
• plastic,
• aromatic solvents (tr.) -typically trichloroethylene or acetone (for
removing flux), lacquer, varnish, paint, ferric chloride (tr.)
(residual etchant)
• And various oxides (tr). and sulfates (tr.)

Components–

• silicon/ fiber glass (component substrates),

• carbon, nickel/chromium wire, high-carbon iron wire(resistors),
mica/polyester/polyethylene/polyp ropy,
• ammonium and/or manganese chloride(capacitor electrolyte),
• copper (wires/inductors),
selenium/chromium/palladium/gallium/si… oxide(transistor and
diode P-type and N-type junction materials and doping materials,
• gold/platinum/copper(semiconductor internal connections,
• aluminum indium gallium phosphide (or arsenide) (light emitting
diodes),
• lithium/silver(battery),
• glass/epoxy resin/rubber/silicone/fiberglass (encapsulation,
insulation),
• Barium and/or beryllium oxide and silicone grease(heat sink
heat transfer compounds,
• Aluminum/steel (heat sinks).

Looking at the above, we can clearly see how the motherboard is a key
component which is very difficult to recycle.

METHOD PROPOSED AT ECORECO

The new method devised is to relieve the motherboard of its

components. In this stage, the components are shaken off and
collected as a composite mass of individual components.

The motherboard is moved on to a fixed jig having holding clamps. The

motherboard is heated using a localized heating source which will
focus intense heat radiation onto the motherboard wherein the
components are loosened due to melting of solder.

The molten solder is collected into a receiving bin; the hot

motherboard is moved to the next station where it is vibrated to shake
the components off. The components then fall into a collection bin and
transferred to the next station for further processing.

The motherboard is now cleared off all the components and it contains
only the embedded copper and other materials along with resins and
fiberglass.
The motherboards are collected and grouped for the next operation.

The collected motherboards are now sent to a reactor which is heated.

The motherboards are heated to a temperature of app 300 deg C,
wherein most of the unreleased metals are released as droplets. The
resins are gassed off and the gasses are passed through a catalytic
converter. The gasses are converted into hydrocarbon gasses and
liquids and condensed to be collected as liquid hydrocarbons. It’s
observed that typically one kg of motherboard gives about 350 ml of
combustible oil. The copper layer is peeled off in this process and gets
collected at the bottom of the reactor along with the char from the
reactor. As the fibreglass does not have sufficient thermal flux to melt
it, it will remain in its original form most of the time.

In this process, we have recovered some metals, converted the

organics and resins into a useful fuel and finally ended up with char
containing metals and a lot of copper.
The char along with the copper is now washed and so that the clean
metal is recovered for further processing. Copper is recovered in the
form of strips whereas the other metals are collected in the form of
droplets. The char is then filtered out and dried for use as a solid fuel.
The liquid fuel is collected and stored. The fibreglass remnants of the
motherboard are collected for further processing.

The fibreglass collected is then transferred to a furnace for melting and

conversion to other articles.

COMPONENT SEPARATION AND RECOVERY

The components freed from the motherboard will have two types of
components. First is the type which are bare and the other are
embedded in silica, plastic, polymer etc.

The segregation thus poses a challenge. So, the method had been
evolved to go for metal separation in several stages. In the initial
stage, the components are passed though a magnetic separator, which
will separate al the ferrous metals along with their coated materials
and thus are sent into a separate bin.
The rest of the metals are then passed through an Eddy current
separator wherein all the non-ferrous materials are separated. The
separated non-ferrous will contain uncoated copper coils, other non-
ferrous metals. Due to the non-magnetization, coated non-ferrous
materials can not be separated at this stage and they are pooled into a
separate bin.

Now, we have separate collection bins for ferrous including the coated
ferrous components, non-ferrous uncoated and coated non-ferrous
materials.

The ferrous components are then sent to a precision surface grinder to

remove the surface silica coatings and release the embedded metals.
The free ferrous material is now collected and segregated for re-
cycling. This may still contain the gold, silver, copper and other
inclusions in them. So, these materials are sent for further processing.
The uncoated non-ferrous material are sent for further processing
directly whereas the non-ferrous metals coated with polymers are then
sent to the reactor once again along with motherboards etc. In the
process as explained, the metal is collected along with char and
separated and the separated metal is sent for further processing.

SEPARATION OF PRECIOUS METALS AND RECOVERY

The metal from the e-waste consists of a mixture of many metals

having varying melting points and properties.

Conventionally, these metals are recovered using copper smelting

techniques followed by cyanide process for the recovery of Gold. The
methods involved in the recovery are based on conventional methods
used in the mined ore processing.

These methods are expensive, energy intensive and require multiple

steps and some of the methods used are not environmentally friendly.

Ecoreco has evolved a process based on the physical properties of the

metals like melting temperature, specific gravity and others. Each
metal has a specific signature and the methodology to recover the
metals from a mixture of metals is based on the physical properties of
the metals themselves.

The method envisages the usage of specific physical characteristics

like melting point and specific gravity followed by certain optical
properties of the metals.

The metals are processed in a series of processors which are

maintained at specific temperatures and rotational speeds to separate
the metals individually at different process levels.
Each individual processor in the sequence of processors is designed to
separate one single metal and based on the number of metals in the
mixture, the number of processors are decided. The processors have
been designed to be interchangeable and can be used for the recovery
of any metal as these processors can be controlled for various
parameters using a PLC system. The processors can be programmed
for individual metals thereby obtaining a clean metal recovery.

This is a new system under development for the specific use of e-metal
recovery and it is not based on conventional systems. The system is
designed to be user friendly, environmentally safe, minimum or no
dependence on chemicals, low power consumption, small foot print
and fully automated requiring minimum human interface.
The following metals are found in e-waste and the properties of these
metals are listed as below

METAL MELTING POINT SP. GR.

deg C (max) kg/cu. Mtr
GALLIUM 30 5900
INDIUM 157 7160
LITHIUM 180 535
SELENIUM 217 4700
TIN 232 7280
CADMIUM 321 8640
LEAD 327 11340
ANTIMONY 630 6660
ALUMINIUM 659 2600
BARIUM 725 3590
BRASS 940 8400
SILVER 961 10490
GOLD 1063 19320
COPPER 1083 8930
STEEL 1363 7850
SILICON 1410 21000
NICKEL 1453 8800
PALLADIUM 1552 1200
CHROMIUM 1615 7190
PLATINUM 1772 21400
FIBREGLASS 2100

From the above, we can observe that the metals can be grouped in
distinct MP ranges. The temperature range between melting points
between metals is very close. Hence, high temperature precision
processing is required. At the same time, within a distinct group with a
low temperature difference, the density difference could be quite
substantial and hence a combination of melting point and density
separation would give quite a unique solution to the metal recovery
from the e-waste.

This process will require precision temperature controllers coupled with

rotating heads to maintain a certain centrifugal forces to force the
metals out within a particular temperature range and thus a clean
metal recovery is possible. Besides, a rapid cooling of the separated
particles will aid in the purity of metal recovered.

PRECISION PYRO=PROCESSORS FOR RECOVERY OF METALS

Each Processor is configured for a narrow range of temperatures for

precise control of melting points of various metals.

There are certain metals where the melting point difference is very
nominal and these metals are transferred to a second array of
Processors which are controlled to a precision of 1 degree C.