Techniques to separate metal from waste printed circuit boards from discarded personal computers

Waste printed circuit boards contain valuable metals such as Au, Pd, Ag, and Cu that can be reutilized and harmful elements such as Pb, Br, and Cr that must be removed from the viewpoint of environmental conservation. In this research, we examined a method that separates the materials from printed circuit boards contained in discarded personal computers. After cutting the printed circuit boards to a size of 20 × 20 mm, they were heated at 873 K under an Ar atmosphere to remove organic resins containing elements such as C, H, and N. After heat treatment, the printed circuit boards were crushed using a planetary ball mill and the pulverized powders were filtered. The fraction with a granularity of greater than 250 μm was separated into magnetic and nonmagnetic materials by a magnetic field. Because the fraction with a granularity of less than 250 μm contained 39 mass% of C, it was heated at 1273 K in an atmosphere of 95% Ar and 5% O2 to allow carbon combustion to take place, followed by metal reduction processing at the same temperature in an atmosphere of 97% Ar and 3% H2. The basicity of the resulting powder was adjusted and the powder was heated at 1773 K under an Ar atmosphere. The proposed method separated the slag and metal, and 80% of the valuable metals contained in printed circuit boards could be collected.