Review on e-waste recycling scenario and development of eco-friendly processes at CSIR-NML

Abstract

Electrical and electronic devices applications in consumer products are growing enormously, resulting in increasing resources demand due to the replacement of old/ obsolete by advanced and new products. It is estimated that the total amount of e-wastes generation in European Union (EU) ranges from 5 to 7 million tons per annum or about 14 to 15 kg per capita with the growth rate 3% to 5% yearly. CSIR-NML (India) is pioneer in the field of development of e-waste recycling processes and also recognized by several national and international recognitions. Present paper focused on a detailed analysis of global e-waste recycling scenario and contribution of CSIR-NML for developing the e-waste recycling processes with several national and international collaborations. Recently, CSIR-NML has developed a process for the removal of hazardous metal elements from leach liquor of electronic scraps following solvent extraction and recovery of valuables. A novel process has been developed for the recovery of lead and tin from liberated resin of printed circuit boards (PCBs) swelled by organic. The processes meet the strict environmental regulations. In the area of rare earth processing, a process for the recovery of neodymium has been developed on laboratory scale by hydrometallurgical route from discarded hard-disk of personal computer. The laboratory scale processes are also developed for the recovery of indium, lithium, cobalt, zinc, chromium, lead, tin etc from secondary resources. Developments of several eco – friendly and energy-saving processes for e-waste recycling are underway to meet the stringent environmental regulations.