Waste Management of Printed Wiring Boards: A Life Cycle Assessment of the Metals Recycling Chain from Liberation through Refining

Xue, Meilan; Kendall, Alissa; Xu, Zhenming; Schoenung, Julie M.

doi:10.1021/es504750q

Cited by 72 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Of these cycle types, the traditional route is more straightforward and is perceived as economically more favourable. While this may have been the case at the beginning of the industrial age, the increasing waste generation makes the recycling-reuse pattern desirable and viable for key materials such as paper [66], metals [67], and even electronic waste [68]. At the regional level, placing industrial sites within the environmental context reveals that the significant material flows feature two types of cycles ( Figure 3), which can be extrapolated to a global (planetary) level.…”

Section: Materials Flows and Their Cyclesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamics-Based Process Sustainability Evaluation

et al. 2020

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This article considers the problem of the evaluation of the sustainability of heterogeneous process systems, which can have different areas of focus: from single process operations to complete supply chains. The proposed method defines exergy-based concepts to evaluate the assets, liabilities, and the exergy footprint of the analysed process systems, ensuring that they are suitable for Life Cycle Assessment. The proposed concepts, evaluation framework and cumulative Exergy Composite Curves allow the quantitative assessment of process systems, including alternative solutions. The provided case studies clearly illustrate the applicability of the method and the close quantitative relationship between the exergy profit and the potential sustainability contribution of the proposed solutions. The first case study demonstrates how the method is applied to the separation and reuse of an acetic-acid-containing waste stream. It is shown that the current process is not sustainable and needs substantial external exergy input and deeper analysis. The second case study concerns Municipal Solid Waste treatment and shows the potential value and sustainability benefit that can be achieved by the extraction of useful chemicals and waste-to-energy conversion. The proposed exergy footprint accounting framework clearly demonstrates the potential to be applied to sustainability assessment and process improvement while simultaneously tracking different kinds of resources and impacts.

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Section: Materials Flows and Their Cyclesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermodynamics-Based Process Sustainability Evaluation

et al. 2020

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“…The following outlines the assumptions for the end-of-life management of the microwave:  All metals are assumed to be recycled at a rate of 95% at the end of microwave's lifetime (Kemna et al 2011;Xue et al 2015). Systems expansion has been applied to credit the system for the recycling by subtracting the impacts of the displaced virgin metals and adding the impacts from the recycling process.…”

Section: End Of Life Waste Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental assessment of microwaves and the effect of European energy efficiency and waste management legislation

Gallego‐Schmid

Mendoza

Azapagic

2018

Science of The Total Environment

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More than 130 million microwaves are affected by European Union (EU) legislation which is aimed at reducing the consumption of electricity in the standby mode ('Standby Regulation') and at more sustainable management of end-of-life electrical and electronic waste ('WEEE Directive'). While legislation focuses on these two life cycle stages, there is little information on the environmental impacts of the entire life cycle of microwaves. To address this gap, this paper presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment of microwaves and assesses the environmental implications of the Standby Regulation and the WEEE Directive at the EU level. The impacts are first considered at the level of individual appliances and then at the EU level, with the aim of evaluating the potential environmental implications of the full implementation of the above two EU regulations by 2020. The effects of the electricity decarbonisation and the expected increase in the number of microwaves in use have also been considered. The results suggest that implementation of the EU regulation by 2020 will reduce the environmental impacts considered by 4%-9% compared to the current situation. The majority of these reductions is due to the Standby Regulation, with the contribution of the WEEE Directive being small (~0.3%). However, the expected decarbonisation of electricity will result in much higher reductions (6%-24%) for most impact categories. The results also show that the materials used to manufacture the microwaves, the manufacturing process and end-of-life disposal are environmental hot-spots for several impacts, including depletion of abiotic elements. Therefore, efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of a future electricity mix should be combined with the development of specific eco-design regulations for microwaves that stipulate optimisation of resource consumption. Possible future trends, such as shorter lifetimes and limited availability of some resources, make the development of such product regulations more critical.

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“…Nowadays, a large quantity of acid waste has been generated by many industries [ 1 , 2 ]. These acids are a byproduct of various processes such as leaching, fine-tuning of metals, and mining activities [ 3 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovative BPPO Anion Exchange Membranes Formulation Using Diffusion Dialysis-Enhanced Acid Regeneration System

2021

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Recycling of acid from aqueous waste streams is crucial not only from the environmental point of view but also for maturing the feasible method (diffusion dialysis). Anion exchange membrane (AEM)–based diffusion dialysis process is one of the beneficial ways to recover acid from aqueous waste streams. In this article, the synthesis of a series of brominated poly (2, 6–dimethyl-1, 4–phenylene oxide) (BPPO)-based anion exchange membranes (AEMs) through quaternization with triphenylphosphine (TPP) were reported for acid recovery via diffusion dialysis process. The successful synthesis of the prepared membranes was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The as-synthesized anion exchange membranes represented water uptake (WR) of 44 to 66%, ion exchange capacity of (IEC) of 1.22 to 1.86 mmol/g, and linear swelling ratio (LSR) of 8 to 20%. They exhibited excellent thermal, mechanical, and acid stability. They showed homogeneous morphology. The acid recovery performance of the synthesized AEMs was investigated in a two compartment stack using simulated mixture of HCl and FeCl2 as feed solution at room temperature. For the synthesized anion exchange membranes TPP–43 to TPP–100, the diffusion dialysis coefficient of acid (UH+) was in the range of 6.7 to 26.3 (10−3 m/h) whereas separation factor (S) was in the range of 27 to 49 at 25 °C. Obtained results revealed that diffusion dialysis performance of the synthesized AEMs was higher than the commercial membrane DF–120B (UH+ = 0.004 m/h, S = 24.3) at room temperature. It showed that the prepared AEMs here could be excellent candidates for the diffusion dialysis process.

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Waste Management of Printed Wiring Boards: A Life Cycle Assessment of the Metals Recycling Chain from Liberation through Refining

Cited by 72 publications

References 22 publications

Thermodynamics-Based Process Sustainability Evaluation

Thermodynamics-Based Process Sustainability Evaluation

Environmental assessment of microwaves and the effect of European energy efficiency and waste management legislation

Innovative BPPO Anion Exchange Membranes Formulation Using Diffusion Dialysis-Enhanced Acid Regeneration System

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