line connected. The establishment of the pyrolysis
operating conditions has required a preliminary
kinetic study which allowed predicting the
decomposition reaction time with temperature and
conversion.
Thermal analysis experiments were performed
on about 10 mg of sample (in a powder form) with a
SETARAM 92-16.18 Thermogravimetric Analyser
coupled with a Thermofisher Omnic FTIR
spectrometer (TGA-FTIR) between 298 and 973 K
using four heating rates (2, 5, 10 and 15 K min–1),
under an argon carrier gas of 30 mL min–1 flow rate.
The instrument was calibrated by melting some
standard metals in the temperature range of 430 K
(Indium) and 1235 K (Silver) and heating rates
between 2 and 15 K min–1; the temperature
uncertainty was 0.5 K. Because of the buoyancy
effect, a preliminary “blank experiment” was carried
out before each run.
3. Results and discussion
3.1 Hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of
added value elements from PCBs
In Table 1 the average material content
distribution in PCBs is shown: data has been
evaluated out of three different samples (ranging
from 0.5 to 3 Kg) and reported as percentage in
weight with a standard deviation below 5%.