The increasing diffusion of Hi-tech complex
products has raised the attention of scientific
community towards their End of Life treatment, both
in terms of assuring an appropriate disposal, to avoid
the dispersion of harmful substances, and with the
aim of their exploitation as valuable sources of raw
materials. PCBs were subjected to an innovative
integrated process based on product centric approach
to recover all valuable materials, and mixed plastic
associated is also treated to maximize the production
of valuable liquids and gas, reaching percentages at
the highest equal to 95%.
The results obtained with the
hydrometallurgical process show recovery rates for
gold, tin, silver, lead and copper and purity grade up to
99%. The experiments carried out on personal
computers plastic fraction (including PCBs and
external cases) allow to conclude that pyrolysis appears
to succeed to treat a heterogeneous plastics charge
made up of engineered polymers, converting it into an
enriched hydrocarbons mixture with yields around 95
% w/w, to be exploited as a fuel, or as possible source
of chemicals after an adequate further refining
treatment. The process developed for personal
computers plastic components can be extended to other
small household appliances that have similar plastic
composition.
The integration of the developed technological
solutions allows the recovery of over 40% weight of
materials. The results of this work indicate that the
proposed integrated approach, based on the holistic
view of all elements contained in an End-of-Life
complex product, focuses environmental sustainability
and supports economic feasibility of process
recovery