WASTE PRINTED CIRCUIT BOARDS SEPARATION IN ELECTROSTATIC SEPARATOR

Abstract

Printed circuit boards from electronic waste are very important source of precious metals by recycling. The biggest challenge is liberation and separation of useful components; thin film which contains copper, zinc, tin, lead and precious metals like silver, gold and palladium from non useful components; polymers, ceramics and glass fibbers. The paper presents results for separation of shredded printed circuit boards from TV sets in electrostatic separator. Testing where conducted with material class 2/1 and 1/0.5 mm in laboratory on equipment for mineral processing. Results showed influence from independent variable; separation knife gradient, drum rotation speed and voltage on concentrate quality and recovery (the paper is published in Croatian).

Keywords

• printed circuit boards
• electrostatic separation
• concentrate quality
• recovery