Dept.
of Chemistry/PACE/Mangalore (22CHES12/22)
MODULE 5
E-WASTE MANAGEMENT
E waste:
All electronics and electrical items which is discarded on completion of their useful life is
called as E-waste
Sources of E-Waste:
1. Computer peripherals: monitor, keyboard, mouse, motherboard, laptops, CDs etc
2. Telecommunication device: phones, cell phones, routers, pagers, fax machine etc.
3. Household appliances: washing machines, vacuum cleaners, toasters, drying
machines, refrigerators, irons, air conditioners etc.
4. Industrial electronics: sensors, medical device, automobile device etc.
5. Electrical devices: switches, wires, bulbs etc
Composition
1. E-waste contain about 65% of iron, steel, and other metallic materials including
costly metals like platinum, gold, silver, and toxic metals likelead mercury, cadmium,
chromium etc.
2. E-waste contains about 21% of polymeric non biodegrable materials including PVC
(poly vinyl chlorides), polychlorinated biphenyl, and brominated flame retardant
plastics.
3. E-waste also contains about 11.8 % of CRT and LCD screen and other materials like
glass and ceramics.
Characteristics of e Waste
E waste contains hazardous substances such as lead, polychlorinated biphenyls
(PCBs), poly brominated biphenyls (PBBs), mercury, poly brominated diphenyl
ethers (PBDEs), brominated flame retardants (BFRs), and toxic metal like mercury,
lead, cadmium, chromium as well as valuable substances such as iron, steel, copper,
aluminum, gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and plastics.
These hazardous substances like plastic, lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic etc. pose
health hazards on the human being to the most when treated in uncontrolled condition
via air, water and soil. The people engaged in the recycling and recovery from the e-
waste is severely affected with chronic and acute diseases like cancer etc.
Need for E- waste management
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Dept. of Chemistry/PACE/Mangalore (22CHES12/22)
E waste is a complex mixture of metals, nonmetals, organics, and ceramics. Disposing
of this mixture in land fill can cause environmental issues. This results in serious
environmental problems due to passing of dangerous chemicals into soils, water, air
and human beings.
Also it results loss of metals whose quantities are limited in the earth’s crust. Due to
these facts, proper efficient E-waste management is required for the recovery and
reuse of components of E- wastes
E- waste contains hazardous and non-hazardous substances. Hazardous substances are
toxic and affect the quality of ecosystem and also the human health. Hazardous
substances include lead, mercury, cadmium, zinc, yttrium, chromium, beryllium and
nickel.
Organic compounds like chlorofluorocarbon, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs),
brominated flame retardants (BFRs) etc.
TOXIC MATERIALS USED IN MANUFACTURING ELECTRONIC AND
ELECTRICAL PRODUCTS // HEALTH HAZARDS DUE TO EXPOSURE TO E-
WASTE
Toxic materials used in manufacturing electronic and electrical products are hazardous. Hazardous
substance are toxic and can affect the quality of ecosystem and have harmful effects on human health.
These includes
1. Heavy metals like Cd, Cr, Pb and Hg
2. Organic compound like CFC (chlorofluorocarbons), ployacyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons,(PAHs), Poly chlorinated biphenyls(PCBs) etc.
Constituents sources Health effect
Lead Solder in printed circuit board, Damage to central and peripheral nervous system,
glass, gaskets in computer blood system, kidney damage, effect the brain
monitor panel development of children
Cadmium Chip resistors and Accumulate in kidney and liver, causes nerval
semiconductors damage
Mercury Relays and switches, printed Chronic damage to brain and respiratory system.
circuit board
Plastic Circuit board, cabinets and Burning produces dioxin. It causes reproductive
including cables and development problem. Immune system
PVC damage
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Dept. of Chemistry/PACE/Mangalore (22CHES12/22)
Beryllium fond in motherboard carcinogenic and causes lungs cancer, skin
diseases
RECYCLING AND RECOVERY OF E-WASTE
In e-waste, among various components metals contribute to the significant economic value
and efforts are focused on extracting the metals during recycling operation.
Different Approaches of Recycling- Separation &Thermal treatments
The recycling of e-waste is initiated with physical or mechanical pre-process.
The first step involves physical removal of toxic materials and unwanted components
Manual dismantling and separation of components such as PCBs, monitors, batteries etc
into various fractions like metals, ceramics, plastics, wood and paper using hammer,
screwdrivers and conveyer beds for disassembling.
In second step shredding of materials mechanically through crushers or grinders to collect
fragments of metal bearing components. Metals such as aluminium and copper can be
separated from non-metallic components from eddy current method.
Next the waste is passed through electrical separators to separate metallic and non-
metallic components.
Magnetic separator is used to ferrous metals.
Gravity separation is used to separate Al metal.
Finally, after physical separation, various chemical treatments are employed to recover
metals.
HYDROMETALLURGY METHOD
There are 3 stages in metal recovery by hydrometallurgy method
1. Pretreatment stage
2. Chemical treatment stage
3. Metal recovery stage
1. Pretreatment stage
In the pretreatment step, E- waste is manually dismantled to separate various fractions like
metals, ceramics, plastics, papers and wood. The technique such as gravity separation,
electrostatic separation, magnetic separation and eddy current separation are used to separate
metals from other fractions.
2. Chemical treatment stage
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Dept. of Chemistry/PACE/Mangalore (22CHES12/22)
In this method metals are leached into solutions by treating with different leaching reagents.
The techniques are given below
1. Cyanide leaching
Even though cyanide solutions are toxic, they are mainly used to leach gold metals. Sodium salts of
3- nitrobenzene sulphonic acid with KCN in the presence of oxygen are used to extract gold.
2Acid and alkaline leaching;
Nitric acids,sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acids are used for leaching of targeted metals. Organic acids
such ascorbic acid acetic acids and citric acids are used to leach light metals from batteries and mobile
devices.
3. Thiosulphate leaching
Thiosulphate is used as alternative leaching agent for the recovery of precious metals like gold and
silver. Ammonium thiosulphate solution is used to solubilize gold, silver, platinum and other precious
metals in form of anionic stable complex. This reagent is safe non toxic, non corrosive and metal can
be recovered from the complex.
4. Thiourea leaching
Thiourea forms a cationic soluble complex with target metal.Thiourea gives quick rates of leaching
less interference of ions, is environmentally friendly, and has low cost. In printed circuit boards, the
gold and silver selectively forms a metal-thiourea cationic complex.
5. Halide leaching
Chloride, bromide and iodide ions can be used to leach gold from the PCB waste. They are cheaper,
selective to the target and ideal leaching agent
3. Metal recovery stage
In the last step metal is recovered from leach solution. Varieties of methods like electro
deposition, solvent extraction, ion exchange, adsorption, precipitation and cementation are
used to recover metals from leached solution.
A) Solvent extraction
In this method leaching solution is treated with an organic solvent in a separating funnel. it
results in two phase system. Metal is extracted from leached solution phase to organic phase.
Different extractants such as anionic, cationic, or solvating type are employed.
Example: Diamine extractants is used for platinum and palladium.
Anionic type amide extractants is used for gold, iridium and tungsten.
B) Electrodeposition:
In this method pure metal is obtained from leached solution by electro deposition. Pure metal
is used as cathode and inert metal is used as anode is dipped leached solution. When current
is applied pure metal is electrodeposited on cathode.
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Dept. of Chemistry/PACE/Mangalore (22CHES12/22)
Example: lead, tin and copper from PCBs can be recovered by electro deposition.
C) Adsorption
Metal can be leached from the leached solution by adsorption on appropriate adsorbent.
Activated carbon is found to be effective adsorbent. Example: Adsorption of gold complex on
activated carbon is effective, cost effective process.
D) Ion exchange
This is improved version of solvent extraction method. Solvent extracting reagents are
impregnated on polymer beads. The functional groups of reagents act as chelating groups and
selectively bind to the metals. This method is used for selective recovery of the desired metal
ions. Ion exchange resins have found effective in recovering gold from cyanide and
thisulphate leach solutions
PYROMETALLURGICAL PROCESS
Pyrometallurgy process is used to extract pure nonferrous and precious metals from e-waste.
The methods require high temperature to reduce /extract metals. Smelting, incineration,
combustion, pyrolysis, and molten salt process are the main pyrometallurgical methods
employed for recovery of metals of e-waste .
1. Smelting
Copper smelting is commonly used for recovery of nonferrous metal fractions from e-waste.
The processed scrap after preliminary stage contains mainly Iron, Aluminium, Copper, Lead,
Tin, antimony, Zinc and precious metals as metallic constituents. The mixture is fed to high
temperature furnace of copper smelters. The copper metal is converted to liquid copper. The
impure copper undergoes electro refining process to get pure copper (99.99 %). The precious
and valuable metals like Au, Pt, Lead, Tin and antimony are recovered from sludge with high
recovery rates of 90% using hydrometallurgical process. Here iron, silicon and aluminium are
not recovered but are collected as slag.
2. Combustion
It is a low technology, low-cost method which focuses on recovery of precious metals. The e-
waste is subjected to open burning in uncontrolled manner which releases all sorts of
pollutants into atmosphere. The method is highly dangerous for the environment and also
increases the health risk of all the workers involved in it.
3. Incineration
It is a controlled combustion of waste with suitable emission units. The incinerator has two
connected furnaces. In first furnace e-waste is burnt at temperature 800oC and in second
furnace for gaseous products of the first incinerator are further oxidised at 1110oC. Heavy
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Dept. of Chemistry/PACE/Mangalore (22CHES12/22)
metals and fly ash are collected at the bottom. Hydrometallurgical process is used for further
recovery of metals. These methods are not advisable due to pollutant gas emission and low
metal recycling performance
4. Pyrolysis
Pyrolysis is a thermal decomposition of e-waste at higher temperature in an oxygen free
environment. During pyrolysis irreversible thermal decomposition reactions takes place
leading to the formation of low molecular weight products (gases and Liquids) at temperature
between 450oC and 1100oC. The gases, chars and oils produced have an economic value and
can be used as fuel. The metallic components can be separated by separation. The process
also involves release of toxic halogens along with flue gases into atmosphere.
5. Molten salt Process
In this method inorganic salts such as potassium hydroxide (KOH)-sodium Hydroxide
(NaOH) are used at different temperature between 300 oC and 1100 oC in a furnace
depending upon the requirement. E-waste is fed with the salt and salt is melted at desired
temperature in an inert atmosphere. The organic part decomposes in salt forming carbonate
and silicates and gets trapped in salt. The metallic component is collected at the bottom of the
furnace by removing the organics. The metal is further processed to get pure metal.
DIRECT RECYCLING OF E-WASTE
In this process the electronic components are harvested directly from e-waste without
breaking them further into small components. The harvested materials are further processed
with healing methods to regenerate recycled materials. The regenerated materials have
performance equivalent to originally manufactured materials. Thus, in this method the
complicated chemical and metallurgical steps involved in conversion of e-waste components
into chemicals are avoided. The process requires less energy and is eco-friendly. There are
certain problems related with this method. Direct regeneration of components depends upon
state of health of used electronic materials. Defects and impurities accumulated during usage
could affect the quality of refurbished active material. Presently direct recycling of lithium-
ion batteries is studied. Here battery is discharged first to ovoid short circuiting and self-
ignition of battery and dismantled to separate anode, cathode, electrolyte and separated.
These components are not dismantled further. Here each component is regenerated using
appropriate process to recover its function. These components are reassembled for reuse.
EXTRACTION OF GOLD FROM E-WASTE:
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Dept. of Chemistry/PACE/Mangalore (22CHES12/22)
Gold metal has good electric conductivity and chemical stability and hence it is used for
making integrated circuits of electronic devices, coating for contacts and connectors. E-wase
contains 10 times more excessive concentration of gold compared to gold ores. Among the E
waste PCBs are rich in metals. It contains around 35% of Cu, 0.16% Ag, and 0.13% gold by
weight. Several methods are pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, biometallurgy, microwave
treatment etc are employed to recover precious, metals from E-waste. Among these, recovery
of metals hydrometallurgy is more economical.
Hydrometallurgy method of Extraction of gold from E waste
There are 3 stages in metal recovery by hydrometallurgy method\
1. Pretreatment stage
2. Chemical treatment stage
3. Metal recovery stage
Pretreatment stage
In the pretreatment step, e waste is manually dismantled to separate various fractions like
metals, ceramics, plastics, papers and wood. The technique such as gravity separation,
electrostatic separation, magnetic separation and eddy current separation are used to separate
metals from other fractions.
Chemical treatment stage
In this method metals are leached into solutions by treating with appropriate chemical
reagents. Several leaching agents such as thiosulfate, alkaline cyanide, and many acids such
as hydrochloric acid, sulphuric acid and nitric acids can be used to leach gold into solution.
Cyanide leaching is the most common method used to extract gold metals. Sodium salt of 3-
nitrobenzene sulphonic acid with KCN in the presence of oxygen used as leaching agent. A
water soluble dicyanoaurate gold complex is obtained in the process
4 Au + CN- + O2 + H2O 4 Au (CN)2 - + 4 (OH) -
Metal recovery stage
In the last step metal is recovered from leach solution. varieties of methods like electro
deposition, solvent extraction, ion exchange, adsorption, precipitation and cementation are
used to recover metals from leached solution. In electro deposition method , gold is extracted
by electro deposition of gold from dicyanoaurate gold complex. Pure gold metal is taken as
cathode and inert metal is used as anode is dipped leached solution. when current is applied
gold is electrodeposited on cathode.
ROLE OF STAKE HOLDERS IN ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT OF E-WASTE
(PRODUCERS, CONSUMERS, RECYCLERS AND STATUTORY BODIES)
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Dept. of Chemistry/PACE/Mangalore (22CHES12/22)
The e-waste management program is designed by statutory government regulatory bodies.
The members of the body frame the policies and execute it for protection of the environment.
To achieve the plan of management of e-waste a green tax is collected from consumer
through manufacturer. Penalties are implied on manufacturer and consumers when green tax
is not paid. Manufacturing units must support the agenda of e-waste management by doing
dismantling processing of e-waste, management of scarp materials and reselling of recycled
materials. Consumer must pay green and must be aware of importance of e-waste
management. All stakeholders must effectively work in tandem form for effective e-waste
management.
There are four stakeholders in environmental management of e-waste. They are as follows.
1. Statutory Government Regulatory bodies.
2. Producers (Manufacturing units).
3. Recyclers (Recycling units and collection units)
4. Consumers.
1. Statutory government Regulatory bodies
The statutory bodies play a Vitol role in management of e-waste. Main roles are:
a) To collect the green tax from consumer through producer.
b) Apply extra charges on producers (manufacturing units) in form of penalty when
no proper recycling is assured from manufacturing units.
c) Provide incentives in form of subsidy to recyclers and collectors when recycling
of e-waste is done properly.
d) To conduct programs of awareness in the society about importance of e-waste
recycling in reduction of hazardous substances.
2. Producers (Manufacturing units)
a) The accountability to collect green tax.
b) Charging an additional amount on consumer during sell of e-products and
returning it with interest at the time of exchange of e-product.
c) Forming the group of manufactures who monitor and encourage the recycling of
e-waste.
d) Bearing the transportation cost and collection fees to ease collection process.
e) Purchase the recycling material at fixed value and using of recycled e-waste
during manufacturing.
f) Giving discount to consumer on the basis of e-waste generated from gadget.
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Dept. of Chemistry/PACE/Mangalore (22CHES12/22)
3. Recyclers (Recycling units &Collection Units)
a) The accountability of recycling units is dismantling, recycling processing of e-waste
materials, management of scarp materials and reselling of recycling materials
b) Establish collection units and group of people who can ensure return back of e-
products by consumer in exchange offer or directly approach consumer for door-to-
door collection.
c) Collect the e-waste from the collection units, dealer or retailer.
d) Providing incentives when proper collection of e-waste assured by collection units.
4. Consumer
a) The accountability to pay green taxes.
b) Develop self-awareness on e-waste management and involve in awareness
programs.
c) Returning back of e-waste to collection units
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Question Bank on E-Waste Management
1. Mention the sources of e-waste and explain the need for e-waste management.
2. Explain the extraction of gold from e-waste.
3. Explain the recycling of e-waste.
4. Explain the pyrometallurgical and direct recycling methods.
5. Write a brief note on role of stakeholders for example; producers, consumers,
recyclers, and statutory bodies.
6. Explain the Hydrometallurgical extraction of e-waste management.
7. Explain the ill effects of toxic materials used in manufacturing electrical and
electronic products
