IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jwaste/v1y2023i1p18-292d1046586.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

ASPEN PLUS Predictive Simulation of Printed Circuit Boards Pyrolysis and Steam Gasification for Organic Fraction Valorization

Author

Listed:
  • Pietro Romano

    (Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and of Economics, Campus of Roio, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy)

  • Emanuele Melchiorre

    (Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and of Economics, Campus of Roio, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy)

  • Francesco Vegliò

    (Department of Industrial and Information Engineering and of Economics, Campus of Roio, University of L’Aquila, 67100 L’Aquila, Italy)

Abstract

Printed circuit boards are considered a secondary source of raw materials, such as precious or base metals. One of the most promising solutions for recovering these metals is certainly hydrometallurgy. However, the leaching of different metals from PCBs is hindered by the presence of an organic fraction that lowers the extraction yields. One solution to this problem is a pyrolysis pre-treatment which removes the organic fraction and enhances it through conversion into syngas. A steady-state simulation model was developed using ASPEN PLUS to describe the thermodynamic behavior of PCB pyrolysis. The pyrolysis reactor was modeled as a combination of the Yields reactor and the Gibbs reactor. The model has been validated using various data present in the literature. The composition of the different products was estimated through the minimization of Gibbs’s free energy. A sensitivity analysis was performed to investigate the influence of different parameters on the conversion yield and the syngas quality produced. Thanks to the study, it was possible to describe and analyze the pyrolysis of PCBs without requiring numerous experimental tests. The results show how steam gasification appears to be the most efficient technology for the pre-treatment of PCBs within a hydrometallurgical process.

Suggested Citation

  • Pietro Romano & Emanuele Melchiorre & Francesco Vegliò, 2023. "ASPEN PLUS Predictive Simulation of Printed Circuit Boards Pyrolysis and Steam Gasification for Organic Fraction Valorization," Waste, MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-12, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jwaste:v:1:y:2023:i:1:p:18-292:d:1046586
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0391/1/1/18/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2813-0391/1/1/18/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Evangelopoulos, Panagiotis & Kantarelis, Efthymios & Yang, Weihong, 2017. "Experimental investigation of the influence of reaction atmosphere on the pyrolysis of printed circuit boards," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 1065-1073.
    2. Lu, Yan & Xu, Zhenming, 2016. "Precious metals recovery from waste printed circuit boards: A review for current status and perspective," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 28-39.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sergey M. Frolov & Viktor A. Smetanyuk & Anton S. Silantiev & Ilias A. Sadykov & Fedor S. Frolov & Jaroslav K. Hasiak & Alexey A. Shiryaev & Vladimir E. Sitnikov, 2024. "Thermo-Mechano-Chemical Processing of Printed Circuit Boards for Organic Fraction Removal," Waste, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-16, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haichao Yang & Sheng Zhang, 2024. "Risk management of e-waste disposal in China: A life cycle perspective," Energy & Environment, , vol. 35(3), pages 1235-1250, May.
    2. Zhang, Yingwen & Zhou, Chunbao & Liu, Yang & Zhang, Tianhao & Li, Xiangtong & Wang, Long & Dai, Jianjun & Qu, Junshen & Zhang, Changfa & Yu, Mengyan & Yuan, Yanxin & Jin, Yajie & Yu, Hejie & Fu, Jie, 2022. "Product characteristics and potential energy recovery for microwave assisted pyrolysis of waste printed circuit boards in a continuously operated auger pyrolyser," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PD).
    3. Awasthi, Abhishek Kumar & Li, Jinhui, 2017. "An overview of the potential of eco-friendly hybrid strategy for metal recycling from WEEE," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 228-239.
    4. Serap Ubiç & Rasoul Khayyam Nekouei & Veena Sahajwalla, 2024. "A Two-Step Leaching Process Using Thiourea for the Recovery of Precious Metals from Waste Printed Circuit Boards," Waste, MDPI, vol. 2(3), pages 1-25, August.
    5. Ange A. Maurice & Khang Ngoc Dinh & Nicolas M. Charpentier & Andrea Brambilla & Jean-Christophe P. Gabriel, 2021. "Dismantling of Printed Circuit Boards Enabling Electronic Components Sorting and Their Subsequent Treatment Open Improved Elemental Sustainability Opportunities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-33, September.
    6. Furszyfer Del Rio, Dylan D. & Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Foley, Aoife M. & Griffiths, Steve & Bazilian, Morgan & Kim, Jinsoo & Rooney, David, 2022. "Decarbonizing the glass industry: A critical and systematic review of developments, sociotechnical systems and policy options," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Wang, Huaidong & Zhang, Shuhao & Li, Bin & Pan, De’an & Wu, Yufeng & Zuo, Tieyong, 2017. "Recovery of waste printed circuit boards through pyrometallurgical processing: A review," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 209-218.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jwaste:v:1:y:2023:i:1:p:18-292:d:1046586. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.