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E-Waste Management

Introduction

Industrial revolution in the field of science and technology has enhanced the quality
of life but led to manifold problems including the problem of massive amount of
hazardous waste and other wastes generated from electric and electronic products.

e-waste or electronic waste are loosely discarded, surplus, obsolete, broken, electrical
or electronic devices which are at the end of their useful life and need to be disposed
or dismantled to recover some valuable components.

The improper accumulation and recycling can lead to major environmental problems
endangering not only human and animal health but also environment health due to
toxic and other dangerous materials available in them.

E-waste is electronic products that are unwanted, not working, and nearing or at
the end of their useful life. E-waste management refers to the processes and
systems used to collect, transport, treat, and dispose of electronic waste (e-
waste) in an environmentally responsible and safe manner.

Composition of e-waste:

The composition of electronic waste (e-waste) can vary depending on the type of
device and its components. It is characterized by both hazardous and non-hazardous
materials. In general, e-waste is a mixture of materials which includes.

1. Metals: E-waste often contains about 65% of iron, steel, valuable metals such as
copper, gold, silver, aluminium and toxic metals like lead, mercury, cadmium,
chromium etc.,

2. Plastics: Polymeric non-degradable materials which include casings, insulation, and

cables.

3. Glass: they contain glass components, such as screens and lenses.

4. Circuit boards: Circuit boards in electronic devices contain a mixture of metals and
other materials.

5. Batteries: Batteries which are present in electronic devices can contain hazardous
materials such as lead, mercury, and cadmium.

6. Other materials: include flame retardants, PCBs, ceramics, plywood, concrete, rubber
and other items.
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Characteristics of E-waste:

E-waste is often difficult to manage due to its complex and ever-changing

composition.

1. e-waste is a complex mixture of materials, which is a challenge to recycle and

dispose of properly.

2. The hazardous materials such as heavy metals, flame retardants, and batteries,
pose significant environmental and health risks.

3 E-waste has become a global issue due to manufacture, usage & discard of
electron devices worldwide.

4. The raw materials used for electronic devices is causing resource depletion. The
improper disposal of e-waste is leading to environmental contamination and waste
of valuable resources which impact on environment and human health.

Need of e-waste management:

The necessary of E-waste management helps to address several environmental,

health, and resource-related concerns which are as follows,

1. Protecting the environment and human health from toxic substances, such as lead,
mercury, and cadmium.

2. Conservation of valuable resources, like metals, have to be recovered and reused

through proper recycling.

3. Greenhouse gas emissions during the production of new electronic products will
impact on environment. Proper recycling and disposal of e-waste can reduce the
environmental impact of electronic products.

4. Land filling of electronic waste can result in the release of toxic materials into the
environment and contribute to soil and water pollution, which has to be reduced.

5. Public health is affected due to improper handling and disposal of e-waste by the
workers, also hazardous materials may cause serious health problems.

6. E-waste can be toxic, is not biodegradable and accumulates in the environment, in

the soil, air, water and living things causing pollution.

7. E-waste management programs aim to promote responsible recycling and

disposal of electronic waste which minimizes the release of hazardous materials into
the environment.
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This helps to protect the environment, conserve resources, and promote public
health and safety.

Toxic materials used in manufacturing electronic and electrical products:

• Electronic and electrical products contain several toxic substances, including lead,
mercury, and other metals, flame retardants and certain phthalates.

• Computers and mobile phones can contain different toxic substances. The main
toxic substances that could be found in e products are Pd, Hg, Cd, Zn, Cr, brominated
flame retardants, SbO3, PVC, Ni, Be, and Y.

• The other toxic materials such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),

polybrominateddiphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and
furans (PCDD/Fs) are used in manufacturing of e products.

Hazardous substances in specific materials and components of electrical equipment:

• Printed circuit boards: In printed circuit boards, cadmium occurs in certain

components. Other hazardous metals such as chromium, lead, mercury, beryllium,
zinc and nickel may also be present.

• Liquid crystal displays: LCDs used in mobile phones and flat screen computer
monitors may contain mercury.

• Cathode ray tubes, CRTs: Lead in the cone glass and cadmium/zinc/yttrium
sulphide in the fluorescent coating.

• Batteries: Heavy metals such as lead, mercury and cadmium are present.

Health hazards due to exposure to e-waste:

Waste is nothing but a combination of plastics and toxic chemicals, these get
released into the environment.

Pollutants such as dioxins and furans from polyvinyl chloride, lead, beryllium,
cadmium, mercury, etc. get into our environment and cause the following health
hazards:

•Reproductive issues

•Developmental problems

•Damage to the immune system

•Interference with regulatory hormones

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•Damage to the nervous system

•Kidney damage

•Hamper’s brain development in children

•May lead to lung cancer

•Chronic beryllium disease

•Skin ailments

•Cadmium accumulations on liver and kidney

•Asthmatic bronchitis

•DNA damage

•Muscle weakness

•Endocrine system disruption

Example:

Element Effect on human body.

Lead Damage to central and peripheral nervous system, blood and
kidney damage. Affect brain development of children.
Chromium Asthmatic Bronchitis. DNA damage.
Cadmium Toxic irreversible effect on human health. Accumulates in kidney
and liver. Causes neural damage.
Mercury Chronic damage to brain and respiratory system.
Plastics including Burning produces dioxin. It causes reproductive and
PVC developmental problems ; Immune system damage.

E WASTE RECYCLING

E waste recycling is the process which includes developing, assembly promoting of

electronic products that are prepared from waste materials. The benefits are retrieving
valuable materials and avoiding pollution. The recovered materials can be further used.

The process for recycling e-waste is complex and involves several steps,
including:
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 Collection: E-waste is collected and transported to a certified recycling

facility
The collection of electronic products is done through recycling bins, collection
locations, take-back programs, or on-demand collection services. The mixed
e-waste is then taken to specialized electronics recyclers.
 Sorting: E-waste is manually sorted by type and model,various items (such
as batteries and bulbs) are removed for their own processing. This is the
stage at which some items may also be manually dismantled for
components, reuse, or the recovery of valuable materials.
 De-manufacturing: Functional parts are extracted for reuse, and the
remaining e-waste is disassembled into components
 Shredding: The e-waste is shredded into small pieces allowing for accurate
sorting of materials.
 Separation: The shredded e-waste is separated into different materials using
magnets, eddy currents, and water:
 Magnetic separation: A large magnet pulls out ferrous metals like iron and steel.The
shredded e-waste is passed under a giant magnet, which is able to pull ferrous metals
such as iron and steel from the mix of waste.
 Non-ferrous Metal Separation
Separation of non-ferrous metals from inert materials is done using an eddy
current separator.
Eddy currents are a manifestation of electromagnetic induction occurring
when a magnetic field is applied to a conductor. Or An eddy current is swirling
current set up in a conductor in response to a changing magnetic field
An eddy current separator (ECS) is a machine that uses a powerful magnetic
field to separate non-ferrous metals from an input waste or ore stream. The
device makes use of eddy currents to effect the separation. Non-ferrous
metals typically separated by an ECS include aluminum, copper and die-cast
metals.
Eddy current separators, or non-ferrous separators, use the current induced in
little swirls on a large conductor and separate non-magnetic metals. Eddy
current separators handle high capacities because the conveyor belt separates
and carries away non-ferrous metals continuously and fully automatically.
 Thermal treatments:
E-waste thermal treatment refers to the use of high temperatures to recover
valuable metals and other materials from electronic waste. Thermal methods
for waste management aim to reduce waste volume, convert waste into
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harmless materials, and utilise the energy hidden within waste as heat, steam,
electrical power, or combustible material.

The method involves melting down the waste to separate the metal and other
components. This process includes heat treatment methods like incineration
and other pyrometallurgical techniques.

From the melt metals are recovered, refined and can be reused. Also, plastics
are remoulded for reuse.

Incineration is the process of burning hazardous materials at temperatures

high enough to destroy contaminants. Incineration is conducted in an
"incinerator," which is a type of furnace designed for burning hazardous
materials in a combustion chamber. Incineration can also cause water pollution,
odour, noise, and vibrations, which impact on residential and commercial
neighbours. In addition, it produces hazardous wastes associated with fly ash
and bottom ash, which require careful handling and disposal.
Pyro metallurgical methods: Pyro metallurgical method refers to extracting
nonferrous and valuable metals and other materials from electronic waste at
elevated temperatures. In the pyro metallurgy process, the crushed scraps are
liquefied in a furnace or in a molten bath to remove plastics.

Pyro metallurgical plants must include a gas treatment facility. Dust is often
removed from gaseous streams by an electrostatic precipitator.

This method includes…

1. Smelting: The process by which a metal is obtained, either as the element or

as simple compound by heating beyond the melting point, ordinarily in the
presence of oxidising agents, such as air, or reducing agents, such as coke.
The e-waste is melted in a furnace and then separated into individual metals
and other materials.
2. Refining/Recovery: The metals from the smelted e-waste are further
processed to remove impurities and improve their quality by using
appropriate methods
Advantages:
i. Pyro metallurgical methods are effective and economically efficient
and take full advantage of recovering a sufficient amount of the
precious metals from e-waste.
ii. They generate hazardous by-products and require significant energy
inputs.
Disadvantages: Pyro metallurgical processes are said to be, high
investment, high energy demand, and release of toxic fumes to the
environment
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 Hydrometallurgical extraction: Hydrometallurgical extraction is a traditional

process used to extract valuable metals and other materials from electronic
waste through chemical reactions in aqueous solutions. The following steps are
involved

1. Pre-treatment: In the pre-treatment step, the fragmentation and size reduction of

electronic waste is carried out by using different techniques to prepare it for further
processes like chemical treatment.

2. Leaching: Leaching is the chemical treatment, in which e-waste is treated with

chemical reagents in a solution to dissolve the metals and other materials, creating a
leachate. Some of the leaching techniques are as follows:

Cyanide leaching: Gold is leached by the mixture of sodium salt of 3- nitrobenzene

sulphonic acid with Potassium cyanide in presence of oxygen.

Acid and alkaline leaching: mineral acids like HCl, HN03, organic acids like citric acid,
acetic acid etc., are used. Li is leached by using citric acid.

Thiosulphate leaching: It is the alternative for cyanide leaching. It is safe, non-toxic

and non-corrosive and metal can be readily recovered.

Halide leaching: Halide ions can be used for leaching gold e.g., aqua regia.

3. Separation: The leachate is then subjected to various separation techniques to

separate metals and other materials. Metals are refined through appropriate
methods.

4. Recovery: The recovered metals and other materials are processed for reuse.

Advantages of Hydrometallurgical extraction

I. Able to process low-grade ores, to allow better control of co-products have a

lower environmental impact.

Disadvantages of Hydrometallurgical extraction

I. Large amounts of water are used, so greater potential for contamination.

II. Chances of corrosion and erosion in handling equipment.

Direct recycling:
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Direct recycling is the process of recovering valuable materials directly from electronic
waste by avoiding intermediate steps like complicated chemical and metallurgical
steps.

This method includes the processes such as shredding, granulating, and sorting, which
are used to separate the components of e-waste, such as metals, plastics, glass etc.

The separated materials are subjected for further process to extract the valuable
components and prepare them for reuse. The regenerated materials have performance
equivalent to originally manufactured materials.

Advantages of direct recycling:

1. Includes lower energy inputs

2. Lower environmental impact

3. The potential for higher quality end products.

4. By combining with other methods, such as chemical and pyro metallurgical

processing, it is possible to maximise the recovery of valuable materials.

Recovery of copper from e-waste

The methodology assumed that copper cables contain 62% copper and 38%
insulation. The insulation is typically composed of polyvinyl chloride or PVC (66.3%)
and polyethylene (31.2%) as well as other materials (2.5%).

The process involves burning off waste cables in open fires that incinerates the outer
insulating plastic covering leaving copper as residue which is then collected. Copper
is then recovered as the desired product.

A key area of concern is the human exposure to hazardous chemicals and their
impact on workers’ health.

Dioxins and mercury (Hg), as well harmful chlorine (Cl) compounds, such as
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are released during the burning of the cable
insulation both in form of emissions or as contained in the ash residue. Higher emission
levels of these substances are released due to the incomplete burning process as well
as the lack of appropriate air pollution controls.

These highly toxic substances have multiple negative impacts on human health and
have been proven to cause cancer of the digestive tract, liver and skin. The analysis by
Eco invent also showed a high level of toxicity at the eco-system level. This is mainly
due to the toxic substances in the ash and their subsequent absorption into the soil
and leaching into waterways.
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The recovery of copper from cables through environmentally sound processes can
almost entirely eliminate these impacts and provide the related health and economic
benefits of applying “Good Practice” instead.

There exist three key treatment processes to recover copper from cables:

The first uses manual or mechanical processes to strip cables and wiring to recover
copper;

The second involves heat recovery, and

The third uses chemical processing.

Manual or mechanical processing, that is stripping and mechanical granulation of

cables, is the most widely used method. This is due to its simplicity (which allows its
application for a wide range of cables) and its relatively low cost. In addition to
recovering copper with minimum loss, the cables’ plastic insulation can also be
recovered safely.

Residues are disposed of safely. This not only avoids the incineration emissions but
can also save a considerable amount of raw material to produce new plastic insulation.
In addition, using manual and mechanical processing, the copper recovered maintains
its physical properties and composition.

The second process, Pyro metallurgy (heat recovery) is where cables are
incinerated in high temperature kilns with proper emission controls and the heat is
captured for use. Under optimal operational conditions the formation and release of
most hazardous toxins can be prevented.

The third good practice option involves Hydrometallurgy (chemical treatment).

This option, if properly managed can be an efficient process that is particularly suitable
when the composition of waste cables is mixed and contains a range of different
metals.

Using this process, waste cables are submerged into a series of chemical solutions.
Copper is then extracted in a fractionated process using further techniques such as:
displacement, crystallization and electrolysis of the leaching solution to isolate the
metal. However, this process needs to be carefully managed and monitored to achieve
positive net environmental benefits.

Electro winning Process:

This process is also called the electroextraction process. In this process, electricity is
used to extract dissolved metals from their dissolved states and it is a very simple
process.
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The solid waste from landfills or a mixture of waste containing nonferrous metals(Cu) is
put into a liquid solution. In the liquid solution, the waste dissolves into a liquid state
through a process known as leaching.

The leaching process produces a leachate or leach solution. Now electric current is
passed through the electrode (using an anode and cathode) which is submerged in
the leach solution. This causes the metals to be (chemically) reduced and a thin layer
forms across the surface of the submerged cathode. This extracts nonferrous metals
such as copper is ready for further reuse.

Lithium Ion Battery

Lithium ion battery is the indispensable power source ,it is rechargeable and have
high energy density than other commercially available batteries.

Due to its light weight it also used in smart phones, laptops etc. Each battery consists
of number of batteries generally called cells

Like other batteries it also have positive and negative electrodes namely cathode (+)
and anode (−). The cathode which is a positive electrode consists of very pure
lithium oxide (LiMO2; M=Co, Mn, Ni).

The negative electrode (anode) is placed on the other side, is made up of graphite (a
form of carbon layer structure). Graphite has been commonly used as the anode
material for commercial Lithium ion battery due to its low cost, natural abundance,
high coulombic efficiency and flat potential profile during charging and discharging
process.
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The battery is built up with a transport medium(the electrolyte) so that the lithium
ion carrying charge can moves freely. This electrolyte must be extremely pure.

To prevent short circuit, there is a layer placed in between two electrodes called
separator. Commercially available Li-ion cells use polyolefin as a separator.

Binder: A material like polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) that bonds the current-collecting
sheets to the anode and cathode.

Recycling of Li ion Battery

There are three basic process types:

Pyro-metallurgy (smelting),

Hydrometallurgy (leaching),

Direct recycling (physical processes).

It depends on factors like quantity and characteristics of the material available.

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Materials, including the aluminum, anode, and electrolyte, are oxidized in the smelter,
supplying much of the process energy. The aluminum and lithium oxides end up in the
slag and are not generally recovered.

Both direct recycling and hydrometallurgical processes start with dismantling or

shredding the cells. This step enables immediate recovery of the copper and aluminum
foils as metals, although they still must be separated from each other.

In contrast, pyrometallurgy feeds whole cells into a furnace and sends the copper to a
mixed alloy product (where it is generally recovered by hydrometallurgy), and the
aluminum and lithium to the slag. These could be recovered by leaching.

Pyrometallurgy uses high temperature to facilitate the oxidation and reduction

reactions in which transition metals like Co and Ni are reduced from oxides to metals,
and recovered in a mixed metal alloy.

The metals can then be separated (by hydrometallurgy) and used to make new cathode
material.
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Hydrometallurgy uses acids to dissolve the ions out of a solid like the cathode,
producing a mixture of ionic species in solution. These can be recovered by
precipitation or solvent extraction and reacted with other recovered materials to
produce new cathode material.

The main difference between direct recycling and hydrometallurgical processes is that
direct recycling retains the cathode crystal morphology, while hydro uses strong acid
to dissolve the cathode into its constituent ions, which are sent to aqueous solution.
Working with strong acids increases process costs and complexity, prompting several
studies proposing use of organic acids . After leaching with acid, the dissolved
constituents can be separated from each other and reused to manufacture new
cathode material.

Direct recycling is considered as better option for recycling as the other two methods
have negative environment impact. Direct recycling separates the different
components of the black mass (active material powder from shredding of cells) by
physical processes, like gravity separation, which recover separated materials without
causing chemical changes, enabling recovery of cathode material that is reusable with
minimal treatment.

Difference between Hydrometallurgy and pyro metallurgy process:

Hydrometallurgical process Pyro metallurgical process

Recovery of pure metals from active Recovery of transition metals like Co, Ni
material etc.
High job creation as processes Huge investment capital and low job
involved are labour intensive. creation.
Recovery rate is high Recovery rate is low.
Final residue is low. Final residue is high.
Low gas emission. High gas emission.

There is no simple route to recycling of Li ion batteries. These are varied and
complicated products, whose design continues to evolve. Their recycling can be
environmental and hopefully economic benefits, but none of the several methods for
their recycling is ideal. Material separation technology seems to be the most important
research field to improve the direct recycling process.

Advantages of recycling battery

Reduces the battery scrap volume.
Separates battery components.
Enriches valuable metals
Eliminate danger of waste of LIBs to environment.
Economic benefits.
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