Recovery of copper from electronic waste: An energy transition approach to decarbonise the industry

Copper is essential for a decarbonised economy, yet its production remains heavily dependent on primary extraction processes which still rely on fossil fuels. Thus, there is growing interest in recovering copper from secondary sources, such as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Moreover, the potential for utilising renewable resources in copper recycling remains unexplored. Therefore, this study applied FactSage and HSC Chemistry software to model and simulate the pyrometallurgical route for copper recovery from copper scrap and waste printed circuit boards (WPCB). OpenLCA was employed for a life cycle assessment (LCA) of three scenarios: (i) conventional, (ii) green hydrogen, and (iii) hydrogen produced using grid electricity. The results showed that the carbon footprint of copper production was reduced by 71-96% in the conventional scenario (0.3-0.5 kg-CO2-eq./kg-Cu) and by 93-97% in the green hydrogen scenario (0.1-0.2 kg-CO2-eq./kg-Cu) compared to primary production. However, the use of hydrogen produced with grid electricity resulted in a significant increase in the carbon footprint, even exceeding the conventional scenario. Therefore, the integration of renewable energy sources is crucial for achieving low-emission secondary copper production, contributing to a cleaner metal supply for the energy transition.