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. 2023 Aug;46(8):1121-1131.
doi: 10.1007/s00449-022-02775-z. Epub 2022 Sep 12.

Copper recovery through biohydrometallurgy route: chemical and physical characterization of magnetic (m), non-magnetic (nm) and mix samples from obsolete smartphones

Lidiane Maria Andrade  1 , Amilton Barbosa Botelho Junior  2 , Carlos Gonzalo Alvarez Rosario  2 , Hugo Hashimoto  2 , Cristiano José Andrade  3 , Jorge Alberto Soares Tenório  2
Affiliations

Copper recovery through biohydrometallurgy route: chemical and physical characterization of magnetic (m), non-magnetic (nm) and mix samples from obsolete smartphones

Lidiane Maria Andrade et al. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

The more modern electronics are, the smaller and complex printed circuit boards are. Thus, these materials are continually changed (physicochemically), increasing the copper concentrations in smartphones. In this sense, it is challenging to set standardized recycling processes to improve metal recovery. In addition, biohydrometallurgy is a clean and cheap process to obtain critical metals from low-grade sources and waste electronic equipment. Therefore, the aim of this work was to characterize, physicochemically, 21 PCBs from smartphones manufactured from 2010 to 2015, and then to recover the copper by Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans (biohydrometallurgy). The PCBs were comminuted and separated into Magnetic (M), Nonmagnetic (NM) and without magnetic separation (MIX) samples. It was identified 217.8; 560.3 and 401.3 mg Cu/g of PCBs for M, NM and MIX samples, respectively. Regarding biohydrometallurgy, the culture media iron-supplemented (NM + Fe and MIX + Fe) increased the copper content by 2.6 and 7.2%, respectively, and the magnetic separation step was insignificant.

Keywords: Bioprocess; Copper; Magnetic separation; PCBs characterization.

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