Recovery of valuable metals from waste cables by employing mechanical processing followed by spouted bed elutriation--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Tanabe, E. H., Silva, R. M., Oliveira Júnior, D. L., & Bertuol, D. A. (2019). Recovery of valuable metals from waste cables by employing mechanical processing followed by spouted bed elutriation. Particuology, 45, 74-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2018.12.002

Recovery of valuable metals from waste cables by employing mechanical processing followed by spouted bed elutriation

Eduardo H. Tanabe ^*, Roger M. Silva, Daliomar L. Oliveira Júnior, Daniel A. Bertuol

Environmental Processes Laboratory (LAPAM), Chemical Engineering Department, Federal University of Santa Maria — UFSM, Santa Maria, RS, Brazil

10.1016/j.partic.2018.12.002

Volume 45, August 2019, Pages 74-80

Received 11 September 2018, Revised 29 November 2018, Accepted 8 December 2018, Available online 9 April 2019, Version of Record 10 June 2019.

E-mail: edutanabe@ufsm.br

Highlights

• All the materials were separated and characterized from waste cables.

• Copper can be recycled and re-used several times without any loss of performance.

• The recycling processes of waste cables are usually set to recover metals.

• Spouted bed elutriation was used to separate the valuable components of the cables.

Abstract

Cables and wires, which are essential parts of equipment for the transmission of both information and electricity, contain valuable materials including copper (Cu) and aluminum (Al). This experimental work evaluates the use of mechanical processing (grinding and sieving), followed by spouted bed elutriation, for separation of the valuable materials (steel-coated copper, copper, and aluminum) present in waste coaxial and internet cables. A recovery efficiency of approximately 90% was achieved for the steel-coated copper in coaxial cables. For internet cables, the copper recovery efficiency was approximately 87%. These findings demonstrate that it is possible to separate, recover, and recycle the valuable materials (metals) present in waste cables using simple, low-cost, and efficient mechanical processing followed by spouted bed elutriation.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Waste cable; Elutriation; Copper; Recycling; Mechanical process

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