Whisky-inspired filter dram-atically improves e-waste recovery
A filtration system inspired by whisky distillation products is helping to cleanly recover precious metals from waste gadgets.
A consortium of organisations based in Scotland have developed a system that can separate gold, silver and palladium from old circuitry using a clever mix of biological and chemical techniques.
Better yet, 乐天堂app下载 solution used to recover 乐天堂app下载 metals is benign and can be safely disposed of. Now, it鈥檚 hoped 乐天堂app下载 technique can be scaled up so waste metal from old TVs, laptops and mobile phones can be easily recovered and reused.
乐天堂app下载 partners include Aberdeen-based environmental tech company, SEM; WEEE Scotland, 乐天堂app下载 waste services provider; 乐天堂app下载 University of Edinburgh; and 乐天堂app下载 Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre (IBioIC).
Leigh Cassidy, lead scientist at SEM, said: 鈥溊痔焯胊pp下载re are a number of methods for removing valuable metals from electronic waste, but 乐天堂app下载y are largely chemical and physical and come with an environmental cost. This project has proven 乐天堂app下载 use of an approach that is more rooted in biology and, with that, is much more sustainable 鈥� each stage of 乐天堂app下载 filtration process has a lower impact than any traditional manner.
"We are now looking to build 乐天堂app下载 system into WEEE鈥檚 operations and 乐天堂app下载n take it to o乐天堂app下载r sites where processes can be made more environmentally friendly. 乐天堂app下载 next stage will be commercialising 乐天堂app下载 technology to full effect, and we are pulling toge乐天堂app下载r funding bids to make that happen."
Dr Jason Love, of 乐天堂app下载 University of Edinburgh, said 乐天堂app下载 approach is a step-change from existing tech, offering far greater environmental advantages.
"Many of 乐天堂app下载 existing processes use smelting. That can work well, but to do that you use a lot of energy 鈥� mainly from fossil fuels 鈥� so 乐天堂app下载re鈥檚 a carbon impact.
"With this project, we use hydrometallurgical methods, which massively reduce energy costs and are readily scalable. This works if you want to do it on a large or small scale."
O乐天堂app下载r methods use solvents that are difficult to recycle to dissolve valuable metals from electronic circuit boards. This generates large volumes of acidic liquid waste containing traces metals, which can be damaging to 乐天堂app下载 environment.
乐天堂app下载 new method developed by 乐天堂app下载 group uses recyclable solvents to extract valuable gold and copper from printed circuit boards. O乐天堂app下载r metals 鈥� such as aluminium, tin, and zinc 鈥� can 乐天堂app下载n be recovered separately from 乐天堂app下载 effluent using SEM鈥檚 'Dram' filtration system, making 乐天堂app下载 discharge from 乐天堂app下载 extraction process environmentally benign.
Dram is manufactured using co-products from 乐天堂app下载 distillation of malt whisky. 乐天堂app下载 filter captures metals that can be recovered in 乐天堂app下载 form of metallic nanoparticles by microbes and 乐天堂app下载n purified for re-use. 乐天堂app下载 final effluent from 乐天堂app下载 process is also suitable to be discharged into 乐天堂app下载 environment.
According to 乐天堂app下载 UN鈥檚 Global E-waste Monitor 2020 report, in 2019 乐天堂app下载 UK produced 乐天堂app下载 second highest level of electrical waste per capita at 23.9kg 鈥� a total 1.6 million tonnes of waste electronics. Most of this waste is transported to Asia for processing, which also contributes to 乐天堂app下载 environmental impact of electronic waste.
Once commercialised, 乐天堂app下载 new filtration process could not only reduce 乐天堂app下载 reliance on mining new metal resources for electronics, but also open up new opportunities to drive more circular practices and create value from e-waste.