Recovery of Nickel from Waste Printed Circuit Boards of Personal Computers

Abstract

Present study reports, the application-oriented process for the recovery of nickel from printed circuit boards (PCBs) of scrap personal computers. The PCBs were initially depopulated, crushed, pulverized, and beneficiated to get the metallic concentrate. The concentrate was further processed by hydrometallurgical leaching and solvent extraction processes to extract nickel and copper. At first, leaching studies were carried out in sulphuric acid at different process parameters such as acid concentration, reaction time, temperature, etc., to dissolve the metals. Results show that 99% of Ni and Cu was leached in 20% H SO at 75°C for 2 h maintaining the pulp density of 100 g/L in the presence of 20% H O . The obtained leach liquor was further processed by solvent extraction technique to separate the Cu and Ni. It was found that 99% Cu and Ni were selectively extracted with LIX-984 N at pH: ±2.5 and ±4.5, respectively. Electrolysis, evaporation and crystallization processes could be used to obtain the pure metal and its salt from the pure metallic solutions.