Journal article
Urban mining by flash Joule heating
Nature communications, Vol.12(1), 5794
10/04/2021
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26038-9
PMCID: PMC8490403
PMID: 34608143
Abstract
Precious metal recovery from electronic waste, termed urban mining, is important for a circular economy. Present methods for urban mining, mainly smelting and leaching, suffer from lengthy purification processes and negative environmental impacts. Here, a solvent-free and sustainable process by flash Joule heating is disclosed to recover precious metals and remove hazardous heavy metals in electronic waste within one second. The sample temperature ramps to similar to 3400 K in milliseconds by the ultrafast electrical thermal process. Such a high temperature enables the evaporative separation of precious metals from the supporting matrices, with the recovery yields >80% for Rh, Pd, Ag, and >60% for Au. The heavy metals in electronic waste, some of which are highly toxic including Cr, As, Cd, Hg, and Pb, are also removed, leaving a final waste with minimal metal content, acceptable even for agriculture soil levels. Urban mining by flash Joule heating would be 80x to 500x less energy consumptive than using traditional smelting furnaces for metal-component recovery and more environmentally friendly.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Urban mining by flash Joule heating
- Creators
- Bing Deng - Rice UniversityDuy Xuan Luong - Rice UniversityZhe Wang - University of Iowa, Chemical and Biochemical EngineeringCarter Kittrell - Rice UniversityEmily A. McHugh - Rice UniversityJames M. Tour - Rice University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Nature communications, Vol.12(1), 5794
- Publisher
- NATURE PORTFOLIO
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41467-021-26038-9
- PMID
- 34608143
- PMCID
- PMC8490403
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
- eISSN
- 2041-1723
- Number of pages
- 8
- Grant note
- FA9550-19-1-0296 / Air Force Office of Scientific Research; United States Department of Defense; Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) DE-FE0031794 / Department of Energy, DOE-NETL; United States Department of Energy (DOE)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/04/2021
- Academic Unit
- Chemical and Biochemical Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9984696147102771
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