Metal Recovery from Electronic Waste: Biological Versus Chemical Leaching for Recovery of Copper and

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) generation is a global problem. This PhD research investigates novel metal recovery technologies from WEEE.

Introduction 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Research goals and questions 1.3 Research approach and methodology 1.4 Structure of this dissertation 2 Electronic waste as a secondary source of metals, its management and recovery technologies Abstract 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Global and regional WEEE generation 2.3 Waste as a secondary resource in transition to a circular economy 2.4 Improper management of WEEE 2.5 Transboundary movement of WEEE 2.6 Metals in WEEE 2.7 Metal recovery from WEEE 2.8 Physical pretreatment of WEEE 2.9 Treatment and refining of WEEE 2.10 Conclusions and perspectives 3 Biorecovery of metals from electronic waste - A review Abstract 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Microbial mobilization of metals from electronic waste 3.3 Biorecovery of metals 3.4 Conclusions 4 Characterization of discarded printed circuit boards and a multi-criteria analysis approach for metal recovery technology selection Abstract 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Methodology 4.3 Results 4.4 Discussion 4.5 Conclusions 5 Bioleaching of copper and gold from discarded printed circuit boards Abstract 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Materials and methods 5.3 Results 5.4 Discussion 5.5 Conclusions 6 Two-step leaching of valuable metals from discarded printed circuit boards, process kinetics, and optimization using response surface methodology Abstract 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Materials and methods 6.3 Results 6.4 Leaching of copper in oxidative medium 6.5 Leaching of gold in ammoniacal thiosulfate medium 6.6 Discussion 6.7 Conclusions 7 Selective recovery of copper from the leachate solution by sulfide precipitation and electrowinning Abstract 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Materials and methods 7.3 Results 7.4 Discussion 7.5 Conclusions 8 Techno-economic assessment and environmental sustainability analysis of a newly developed metal recovery technology Abstract 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Methodology 8.3 Sustainability assessment of the newly developed technology 8.4 Techno-economic assessment of the processes 8.5 Results 8.6 Conclusions 9 General discussion and conclusions 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Motivation for metal recovery from WEEE 9.3 Electronic waste as a secondary source of metals 9.4 Metal extraction from the discarded PCB 9.5 Recovery: electrowinning versus sulfidic precipitation 9.6 Techno-economic assessment and environmental sustainability analysis of an emerging technology at an early stage of development 9.7 Strategies for the development of a sustainable technology to recover metals from electronic waste 9.8 Overall conclusions References