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PII: S2211-4645(17)30009-X
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2017.07.001
Reference: ENVDEV362
To appear in: Environmental Development
Received date: 20 January 2017
Revised date: 7 July 2017
Accepted date: 10 July 2017
Cite this article as: Maryam Ghodrat, M Akbar Rhamdhani, Geoffrey Brooks,
Maria Rashidi and Bijan Samali, A thermodynamic-based life cycle assessment
of precious metal recycling out of waste printed circuit board through secondary
copper smelting, Environmental Development,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2017.07.001
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A thermodynamic-based Life cycle assessment of precious metal
recycling out of waste printed circuit board through secondary
copper smelting
*
Maryam Ghodrata , M Akbar Rhamdhanib, Geoffrey Brooksb, Maria Rashidia, Bijan Samalia
a
Centre for Infrastructure Engineering , School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, Western
Sydney University, Sydney, Australia
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Product Design, Swinburne University of Technology,
Victoria, Australia
m.ghodrat@westernsydney.edu.au
Mariam.godrat@gmail.com
arhamdhani@swin.edu.au
gbrooks@swin.edu.au
m.rashidi@westernsydney.edu.au
B.samali@westernsydney.edu.au
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +61247360106; fax: +61 2 4736 0054
Abstract
This study provides an environmental impact assessment of the black copper smelting route for the
processing and recovery of copper and other valuable metals such as gold and silver from waste
printed circuit boards (PCB). Thermodynamic based analysis was conducted to simulate the recycling
process and a life cycle assessment was carried out to estimate and compare the environmental impact
of the two scenarios: (1) recycling of precious metal out of waste PCBs through secondary copper
smelting (Electronic Waste Processing, EWP); and (2) secondary copper recycling without adding
electronic waste to the feed (SCR). The results of the study revealed that environmental impacts of
using e-waste along with low-grade copper scrap in existing smelters to recover precious metals are
dependent on the distance the material feed travels to the smelter and the means of electricity
supplying the smelter. It is also found that the impact of the EWP scenario for climate change,
freshwater eutrophication, and fossil depletion is significantly higher than those obtained from the
SCR scenario and it is mainly because the metal and oxide dust in former scenario needs to be further
refined to recover metals such as nickel, zinc and lead. The results also confirm that 10% cut in
electricity usage in EWP scenario, has the higher environmental benefit in almost all dominant
categories.
Keywords: Life cycle assessment, Precious metal recycling, Waste printed circuit boards, Secondary
copper smelting
1. Introduction
Electronic waste (e-waste) is chemically and physically distinct from other forms of municipal or
industrial waste; it contains both valuable and hazardous material that require special handling and
recycling methods in avoiding environmental contamination and detrimental effects on human health.
Recycling can recover reusable components and base metals, especially copper (Cu) and other
precious metals. In 2006, the world's production of e-waste was estimated at 20 to 50 million tonnes
per year (UNEP, 2007), representing 13% of the global municipal waste production of 1,636 million
tonnes per year (OECD, 2008). Cobbing (2008) calculated that computers, mobile telephones and
television sets would contribute 5.5 million tonnes to the e-waste stream in 2010, rising to 9.8 million
tonnes in 2015. In rich countries, e-waste constitutes around 8% of municipal waste by volume
(Widmer et al., 2005). The chemical composition of e-waste differs subjected to the age and type of
the waste item. However, most e-waste contained a mixture of metals, particularly Cu, aluminium
(Al) and Iron (Fe), shielded with, or mixed with different types of plastics and ceramics (Hoffmann,
n.d.). An unwanted personal computer with a CRT monitor normally weighs 25 kg and composes of
metal (43.7%), plastics (23.3%), electronic components (17.3%) and glass (15%) (Berkhout and
Hertin, 2004). Heavy waste electronic items, such as washing machines and refrigerators, which
mostly consist of steel, may have lower potential environmental pollutants than lighter electronic
waste items, such as laptop computers, which may encompass high concentrations of flame retardants
and heavy metals (Robinson, 2009). Nearly all electronic waste comprises some valued components
or base materials, particularly Copper, Silver and Gold. A recent economic analysis conducted by
(Ghodrat et al., 2016) confirmed the considerable potential value of e-waste recycling that should be
taken into consideration. According to a survey carried out by Davis and Herat (2008) very limited
audit data relating to the composition of e-waste within the domestic waste stream exists in Australia;
also very few facilities can handle the processing or recycling of e-waste. This is further multiplied
by large geographical distances between many of the major metropolises and the treatment spots.
Davis and Herat (2007) hence concluded that e-waste reprocessing is only environmentally and
economically viable in larger cities in Australia where demand is high. Lately a set of new legislation
for the disposal and handling of e-waste in Australia developed using the European Union (EU)
directive as a basis which takes into consideration factors unique to the Australian situation.
Basically the concentration of precious metals in waste PCBs is higher than the concentration of
precious metals in their ores (Chancerel et al., 2009). Based on the research done by Hagelken et al.,
(2005), currently mined ores for the extraction of gold and palladium include less than 10 g/t of
precious metals compared to the concentrations of the similar metals in PCBs of personal computers
(250 g/t of gold and of 110 g/t of palladium). On the other hand, the extraction of precious metals
through mining is associated with negative environmental impacts through significant emissions of
greenhouse gases and energy, water, and land usage (Ayres 1997). Additionally, the environmental
impact of informal recycling of valuable metals out of e-waste especially in undeveloped countries
e-waste, it was revealed that concentrations of Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn released into the environment
would pose a risk to the ecosystems (Widmer et al., 2005) and the potential hazards of persistent
inorganic and organic contaminants (such as toxic PCBs, Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs),
and metals) to the ecosystem are expected to persist for many years. There is limited information,
however, on the impact of e-waste processing through secondary metal scrap recycling on
environmental and human health. In this regards, this paper aims to explore the environmental
consequences of alternatives for recycling high-grade waste PCBs through black copper smelting
route (a secondary copper production process). The motivation for this is to replace a portion of the
secondary copper (low-grade copper scrap) with waste PCB scrap. This can further increase the utility
of existing plants without the need to invest capital in new installations and at the same time, moves
toward forming a close-loop for copper therefore the environmental consequences of replacing a
proportion of secondary feed in existing smelters in Australia are also explored in this paper. Life
cycle assessment (LCA) is an analytical tool for quantifying resource consumption and environmental
impacts linked to a product, process or activity during its entire life cycle. The purpose of most LCA
studies is to find the design option that minimises the life cycle impact of the process.
A substantial body of research on the life-cycle analysis of energy usage and environmental impacts
of metals is available from various life cycle inventory (LCI) databases (Classen et al., 2009,Althaus
and Classen, 2005, Althaus et al., 2007, Design, 2012). Yet, many LCI data are reported in an
aggregated form and hence makes it challenging to make vigorous comparisons or taking co-
production matters into account. A research carried out by Nuss and Eckelman (2014) overcome this
issue to some extent by reviewing existing metals inventory data and collection of new data for
several elements. Their results showed that for the majority of elements in their metallic form, the
cradle-to-gate environmental burdens are largely a result of the purification and refining stages. On
the other hand the criticality of different metals used in modern technologies is an area of growing
interest. For example criticality of metals recycling as an environmental risk alleviating technique
addressed in the work of Graedel et al.(2015) and the European Union report of the Ad hoc Working
Group on defining critical raw materials (Commission, 2014). In an effort to bring enhanced rigor
evaluation of metallic resource recycling, in this paper we have developed a thermodynamic based life
cycle assessment to provide data on precious metal recycling out of e-waste through black copper
smelting process. The novelty of the black copper smelting in this process is to utilise copper as the
Several studies have analysed the environmental impact of electronic waste treatment through LCA
(Niu et al., 2012, Hong et al., 2015, Biganzoli et al., 2015, Bigum et al., 2012, Xue et al., 2015, Rubin
et al., 2014, Wger et al., 2011). In spite of their scientific contributions, quantitative assessments of
the environmental loads due to recovery of precious metals out of waste PCBs are not included in the
calculation of the aforementioned studies. Inventory databases are also variable in terms of geography
and uncertainties involved, hence accurate results for Australian case studies are difficult to obtain.
On the other hand LCA involving waste electronic equipment have generally been carried out from a
product life cycle (Andrae and Andersen, 2010), including an emphasis on different waste
management alternatives (Mayers et al., 2005, Park et al., 2006). Hagelken and Meskers (2009)
assessed the savings in CO2 emissions from the recycling of metals in e-waste based on measurements
at the Umicore facility (Belgium) and saved CO2 emissions from the avoided production of metals
from virgin sources (data from Ecoinvent). The resource issues are however often related to iron;
aluminium and copper e.g. (Mayers et al., 2005, Hischier et al., 2005) and often the LCA studies have
not in any detail included the precious metals. The purpose of this study is to establish a life cycle
inventories (LCIs) for the recycling and recovery of copper, gold and silver by an LCA approach and
to evaluate the environmental impacts connected to the recovery of metals from high-grade waste
electronic equipment (WEE). High-grade WEE is the richest on precious metals containing products
from IT and telecommunications equipment such as high grade boards (green boards with gold
corners on IC chips). In this regard, this paper aims to address the above-mentioned needs in
identifying the key factors to improve e-waste treatment process in Australia, characterize and
compare the recycling methods with and without adding e-waste to the feed of a secondary coper
smelting process.
2. Process description
2.2. Pyrometallurgical route
Pyrometallurgical processes involve the use of high temperature processes to extract metals. The
typical processes include incineration, smelting in furnaces, drossing, sintering, melting and reactions
in a gaseous phase at high temperatures (Wu et al., 1993, Peters et al., 1968, Hagelken and Meskers,
2009) to process and to recover non-ferrous metals as well as precious metals from e-waste. In a
smelting process, the e-waste is injected into a high-temperature furnace and typically integrated into
a base metal production process (such as copper, lead and zinc smelter) which the base metal act as a
carrier for valuable metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium. For example, during copper
smelting, these valuable metals in the PCBs can be recovered and enriched into liquid copper. The
impure copper can then undergo an electro-refining process for producing high purity copper and the
precious metals are recovered from the sludge by-product through various extraction processes. An
extremely wide range of copper-bearing scraps and residues are to be found in the feed material of the
secondary copper smelter. The typical production routes employed mainly three basic grades or types
of scraps include: High-grade copper scrap (mainly of electrolytic quality which may be subjected to a
relatively small quantities of lead, tin, solder and other metallic materials), copper bearing residues,
dust, slags, mixed metals and irony copper. The secondary copper smelters raw material usually
contains copper in the metallic or oxidised form, sulphidic raw material, fluxes and additives together
with necessary reductants (e.g. coal, coke, fuel oil, and natural gas). The most common raw material
for secondary copper production is metallic raw materials (different scraps from copper and copper
alloys) and oxidic materials (copper-rich slags, ashes, drosses, dust and sludges). The process stages
used depends on the copper content of the secondary raw material, its size distribution and the other
constituents (Traulsen et al., 1982, Rentz et al., 1999). Depending on the metal content and the type of
the feed, the smelting step to produce copper metal from secondary materials may comprise several
stages such as reduction, oxidation/slagging and volatilisation. The subsequent fire refining and
electrolytic refining process are similar to the primary copper production. Depending on the purity
and composition of the copper containing materials, they are added at different stages of the process.
In this study, processing of e-waste through secondary copper smelting (black copper route) was
selected. Figure 1 presents the outline of the considered recycling route in this study. The overall
process route selected in this study is shown in Figure 1. This includes a reduction process, followed
by an oxidation. The resulting copper then can be processed through an optional fire-refining process
before further process through electro-refining to produce high purity copper or electrowinning to
recover precious metals (Ag and Au). The detailed explanation of the process and clear demonstration
The copper scrape and shredded waste printed circuit boards are fed into the plant in a mix FCS slag,
coal and oxygen enriched air prior to melting. The melted product called black copper is hereafter
transferred to the oxidation process. The anode refinery consists of the anode casting plant and the
electrolytic refinery. The anode casting plant deoxidizes the blister copper and cast the resulting anode
copper which is then transferred to the electrolytic refinery. The electrolytic refinery converts the
anode copper into the product copper cathodes. The conversion results in a production of anode slime
which contains gold, silver and platinum group metals (PGM) that pumped to the precious metals
refining process. The electrolytic refinery receives a flow from the precious metals refinery from
which additional copper and nickel sulphate is produced (Bigum et al., 2012). The precious metals
refinery also produces a residue from which gold, silver, palladium and Platinum Group Metal (PGM)
sludge is produced. The selected annual throughput for secondary copper smelting process and e-
waste processing plant embedded in a secondary copper smelting process is 110,000 tonnes. There are
a number of processes available to treat different secondary copper materials (Agrawal and Sahu,
2010). The overall process route selected in this study is shown in Figure 1. To evaluate the effect of
waste emission on different environmental indices of recycled materials, the e-waste processing plant
embedded in a secondary copper smelting process with total annual throughput of 110,000 tonnes has
been thermodynamically modelled and compared with secondary copper smelting process with the
same annual capacity. Secondary copper refers to all non-primary sources, such as copper containing
metallurgical wastes (low grade slags, anode slimes), industrial wastes, (copper sheeting, bars, pipes
The first stage of the process is a reduction in a furnace where the feed materials include copper scrap
and oxides, waste PCBs, ferrous calcium silicate (FCS) slag and coke. Some oxygen-enriched air was
also inputted to provide sufficient oxygen for the burning of coke and carbon from the PCB waste. It
has been reported in the literature that about 40 to 60% O2 enriched air is used for reduction process in
the reduction smelters (Davenport et al., 2002, Khaliq et al., 2014) . In this study, the oxygen-enriched
air composition was approximately 54% O2 and 46% N2 (Ghodrat et al., 2017). In practice, the heat
and the reducing condition are provided by the combustion of excess coke by the enriched-oxygen air
supplied in the feed materials. The equilibrium calculations for the reduction stage were carried out
for temperatures of 1100oC to 1600oC, and oxygen partial pressures (pO2) of 10-7 to 10-10 atm
(Ghodrat et al., 2016). During the reduction process, most of the impurities such as Pb, Ni, Sn, Zn, Ag
and Au were predicted to segregate in the liquid copper, although some of them were also distributed
In the next stage of the process, the black copper is oxidised. During this process, controlled oxidation
is exercised where oxygen-rich air is injected into the reactor and oxidise the impurities from liquid
copper and segregate them into the slag and vapour phases. Metal impurities such as Zn, Pb, Fe and
Sn are more reactive with oxygen compared to Cu, and therefore preferentially form their stable
oxides (slag). Consequently, these are removed from black copper during the oxidation process.
Precious metals such as Ag and Au are passive to oxidation and are retained in the liquid copper
during both reduction and oxidations stages. Ag and Au are recovered later in the last stage of copper
processing (Anindya et al., 2013, Rentz et al., 1999). The compositions of the black copper used for
thermodynamic modelling of oxidation process for both EWP and SCR are given in Table 1. Ferrous-
calcia-silica (FCS) flux/slag was introduced in the feed material to absorb the oxides impurities
generated during the oxidation stage to form slag. During the black copper oxidation, additional heat
(when necessary to melt fluxes) is supplied by the burning of carbon from coke or hydrocarbons, and
the oxidising condition is achieved from the excess oxygen. In the thermodynamic modelling of the
oxidation stage, pure carbon was supplied in the feed material, and oxygen was added incrementally
in multi-steps/stages. The increase in step/stage may also represent the increase in oxidation time
Table 1 Compositions of black copper subjected to oxidation for EWP and SCR
Scenario Metal Cu Pb Sn Zn Ni Fe Br Ag Au
EWP Wt% 87.9 2.5 3.58 0.28 5.3 0.003 0.00004 0.18 0.09
SCR Wt% 84.43 7.15 4.08 0.23 4.11 0.0014 - - -
3. Methodology
In this study the mass balances of the considered recycling routes are obtained from HSC Chemistry
The distribution of elements in the various streams (molten metal, off gas and slag) is predicted from
the equilibrium calculations carried out using FactSage 6.4 (Bale et al., 2009). FactSage is based on
an integrated databases computing system for chemical thermodynamic analysis. It has an optimized
database for the solutions such as alloys, liquids, solid oxides and slags. The Equillib module of
FactSage is used for the calculations which incorporate the Gibbs free energy minimization technique
copper smelting (Electronic waste Processing, EWP); and (2) secondary copper smelting without
Recovery rates, as well as qualities, quantities, losses and fugitive emissions for all materials and
elements used in both scenarios are calculated by HSC chemistry Sim.8. HSC chemistry
thermodynamic package is linked with GaBi environmental software (PE, 1992) and has been utilized
to show how the environmental performance of secondary copper smelting and e-waste processing
scenarios and calculating the environmental impact with GaBi must be done separately for e-waste
processing and secondary copper smelting without adding e-waste. The reason is mainly to assess and
justify the effect of adding electronic waste (Waste Printed Circuit Boards) on different environmental
indices.
Figure 2 indicates the detailed flowsheet developed using HSC Sim 8.0 showing the streams in each
unit process. The difference between the EWP and SCR scenarios was that the latter do not have
waste PCB/e-waste as input in Figure 2. Figure 2, shows the mass balance for recycling precious
metal out of waste printed circuit board through secondary copper smelting.
The compositions of the main feed utilised in this study are given in Table 2 to Table 5 below. These
have been given previously in the works of Khaliq et. al. (2014) and Ghodrat et. al. (2016).
The chemical identification of the composition of e-waste materials is an important step to lead to the
establishment of safe recycling procedures and final disposal of e-waste. Several researchers
investigate the composition of the electronic waste materials. For example ngel Aguirre et al.,
(2013) identified a high Cd, Ni and Pb concentrations in the particulate matter (PM), Yamane et al.,
(2011) characterized and compared the PCBs from mobile phones and computers and showed that
there are differences of metals composition (63% w/w in mobile phones and 45% w/w in computers).
To the best of our knowledge, the general perspective for electronic waste for example mobile PCBs
is, with the technological development, new materials are introduced every year in the market and to
predict e-waste elemental composition and identification of hazardous elements is not a simple task
(Tsydenova and Bengtsson, 2011, Shen and Forssberg, 2003, Hadi et al., 2015).
The results of the mass balance for each unit in the process flowsheet of the black copper smelting are
shown in Figures 3 and 4, for both the EWP (with PCB addition) and SCR (without PCB addition)
scenarios. The values shown in the input and output streams are indicating the amount of the materials
flow in tonne. As can be seen from Figure 3, for the first scenario (EWP) a total input rate of 12.5
tonnes per hour of feed materials, composed of approximately 48 wt% copper scrap/metal oxides, 48
wt% waste PCB, 3.4 wt% slag and 0.6 wt% reductant (in this study, coke was chosen as reductant)
was fed into the reduction furnace . For comparison, the second scenario (SCR) was also modeled
with the same amount of total input materials (12.5 tonnes per hour) consisted of 96 wt% copper
scrap, 3.4% wt% slag and 0.6 wt% coke as the main feed for the reduction stage.
Fig 2 A detailed flowsheet of the process selected in the study showing the streams for each
unit
Table 2 Composition of copper scrap/metal oxides used for the feed [8, 49]
Table 4 Composition of metallurgical coke used for the feed [8, 49]
Table 5 Selected compositions of PCB used for the feed [8, 49]
In this paper, life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results are calculated at midpoint level by using the
ReCiPe method (Goedkoop et al., 2009) because the fate exposure of this model is consistent with
multimedia modelling. ReCiPe is a developing LCIA method attempting to combined midpoint and
endpoint impact assessment (as with IMPACT 2002+). ReCiPe 2009 comprises two sets of impact
categories with linked sets of characterisation factors. Eighteen impact categories are addressed at the
midpoint level and at the endpoint level. Most of these midpoint impact categories are further
converted and combined into three midpoint categories. The complete characterization factors and
detailed methodology for ReCiPe are obtainable on the website of Institute of Environmental Science
researchprojects/finished/recipe.html). The steps that are tracked during LCA design are discussed in
The objective of this study is to establish a scientific baseline that can assess the key environmental
impacts related to recovering precious metal out of waste PCBs (through back copper route),
determine the main pollution processes and compare them with secondary copper recycling without
4.2.Functional unit
In this study, two scenarios were analysed and compared. For the first scenario (EWP), i.e. recycling
of precious metal out of waste PCBs through secondary copper smelting, a total input rate of 12,500
kilograms per hour of feed materials, composed of approximately 48 wt% copper scrap/metal oxides,
48 wt% waste PCB, 3.4 wt% slag and 0.6 wt% reductant (in this study, coke was chosen as reductant)
is selected as the functional unit to provide a quantified reference for all other related inputs and
outputs. All air, water, and soil emissions, raw materials and energy consumption, and waste disposal
are based on this functional unit. For the second scenario (secondary copper recycling, SCR), the
same amount of total input materials (12,500 kilograms per hour) consisted of 96 wt% copper scrap,
3.4% wt% slag and 0.6 wt% coke is defined as functional unit.
4.3.System boundary
System boundaries are set by applications by a cradle-to-gate approach. Fig. 5 represents the system
boundary for the two scenarios. The secondary copper recycling scenario (SCR) is simpler than the
EWR scenario because the pollutant of the precious metal refining is excluded in this scenario. The
EWR scenario involves raw material and energy consumption; road transportation of raw material to
the e-waste treatment site; direct air, water, and soil emissions during e-waste treatment processes
(i.e., anode refining, electro refining and precious metal refining); and waste disposal (i.e., on-site
wastewater, landfill and leachates treatment). To simplify the LCA analysis of the selected scenario,
the common process of e-waste collection is excluded. The infrastructure (i.e., construction and
equipment) process is also excluded because of the lack of information for the considered e-waste
treatment site. Hence the system boundaries include all the pyrometallurgical treatment processes,
from the moment the waste enters to the first furnace to when it leaves the system as an emission
(solid, liquid or gaseous) or as a secondary raw material or by-product. They thus included
transportation of the pre-processed waste, copper scrape, slag and coal to the treatment plant and the
subsequent incinerating treatment of all raw materials in the recycling plant as shown in Figure 5. The
geographical scope of the study is regional and the study focused on conditions and technologies for
2015. Primary data were used in the modelling of the foreground system, in particular for the mileage
(a)
(b)
Fig 5 System boundaries for (a) EWP scenario (b) SCR scenario
LCIs are established for both scenarios with reference to available Australian data. The data for the
main treatment facilities are based on the thermodynamic modelling of the pyrometallurgical process.
Table 6 presents the LCIs and refers to the data sources. The electricity consumption of the plant was
calculated based on thermodynamic model built in HSC Chemistry sim8. Copper scrap and electronic
waste sorted from the pre-treatment plant are via the market recycled at other plants. The
pyrometallurgical process data considered as an aggregate LCI results which exported from HSE to
GaBi.
Input Output
Parameter Flow Quantity Amount Unit Parameter Flow Quantity Amount Unit Tracked flows
value)
Australia
[Resource]
Mass for transport Mass 1.19 Kg Slag [Waste for Mass 1.31 kg *
recovery]
resource]
The recovery of metals at the metallurgic plants cause loss of metal to dust ejects etc. The recovery
rates for the metallurgic processing were calculated based on GaBi version 13 and presented in Table
7 together with original content of the material and resources in the considered scenarios.
Table 7 LCI data for the pyrometallurgical plant used in this study
EWP SCR
Electricity
Operational data (i.e., energy, chemicals, raw material, water and wastewater, solid waste, and
product) and direct emissions to water, air and soil associated with the considered scenarios are also
calculated to generate a LCI. Table 8 gives representative information regarding these emissions for
LCIA aims to evaluate the significance of potential environmental impacts using the results coming
out from the LCI phase. Table 9 presents the LCIA midpoint assessment results with the use of the
ReCiPe method. The EWP scenario has a high potential impact on human health, photochemical
oxidant formation, Terrestrial acidification, water depletion, metal and fossil depletion. Coal-based
electricity generation and the distance the material feed travels are significantly contributed to the
Landfill disposal showed an additional dominant contribution to the overall environmental burden for
the SCR scenario, whereas the additional dominant process for the EWP scenario showed direct
pollutant emissions as a result of untreated metal oxide dust ejected to the environment.
Figure 6 shows the LCIA results for EWP and SCR scenarios. The results indicate that almost all
environmental impacts for SCR scenario is lower than the one in EWP scenario. This is mainly
because further processing of metal oxides dusts needed to be conducted for the EWP scenario.
70
EWR SCR
60
50
40
Mass (kg)
30
20
10
0
Emission to air Emission to fresh Emission to sea Emission to Emission to Resource
water water industrial soil agricultural soil depletion
Fig 7 ReCiPe endpoint analyses from GaBi for EWP and SCR scenarios
For both scenarios, the most dominant substances that contribute to climate change are carbon dioxide
and methane. The emissions of heavy metal dust such as arsenic, selenium and lead to air and arsenic,
selenium and mercury to water have major effect on human toxicity. The foremost substance in
photochemical oxidant formation and Terrestrial acidification is nitrogen oxide. The emissions of
non-methane volatile organic compounds to air and nitrate and ammonium to water are additional
particulate matter formation and terrestrial acidification, nitrogen oxides and sulphur dioxide emitted
to the air are the most significant substances. The particulate emission also plays a key role in
particulate matter formation. Phosphate and heavy metals in water have a dominant contribution to
freshwater eutrophication. vanadium, nickel, selenium , beryllium are the most significant substances
in freshwater ecotocxicity. The emission of bromine to water has an additional main contribution to
freshwater ecotoxicity. The use of coal, natural gas, and oil also significantly contributes to fossil
depletion. In addition, the substances that contributed the most to each dominant category are lead,
zinc and nickel to soil from the solid waste open dumping stage for both scenarios. Direct copper
from the waste open dumping process also contribute an important role in most categories, except for
human toxicity. Ammonia , nitric acid and chloride came from inorganic emission to industrial soil
are additional dominant substances in most categories, except for terrestrial ecotoxicity. Direct barium
and antimony emissions from the same process are additional dominant substances in most categories,
5.3.1. Discussion
Although the LCA of e-waste has been extensively studied (Song et al., 2012; Niu et al., 2012), the
potential environmental impact of e-waste treatment widely varies (Kiddee et al., 2013) for example
Hong et al. (2009) compared incineration and melting technologies, which are methods of waste
disposal by burning at 800900 o C and 13001800 o C, respectively. Their results showed that waste
melting technology can significantly reduce toxic pollutants because of their crystallizability at high
temperature. Based on Hong latest study, (Hong et al., 2015) the overall environmental impact of the
e-waste treatment with end-life disposal scenario and incineration scenarios is mainly attributed to
human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, and marine ecotoxicity. Their research showed that the impact
of freshwater eutrophication and terrestrial ecotoxicity also plays an important role in the e-waste
treatment with end-life disposal and incineration scenarios, respectively. In this study we have shown
the impact of EWP (recycling of precious metal out of waste PCBs through secondary copper
smelting) scenario on the climate change, freshwater eutrophication and fossil depletion is
significantly higher than those obtained from the secondary copper recycling without adding
electronic waste to the feed (SCR) scenario, this is aligned with what previous studies reported. For
example Niu et al. (2012) proved that e-waste incineration can generate a significant environmental
burden compared with other kinds of incineration because of the direct toxic material emissions. Song
et al. (2012) studied e-waste incineration technologies by using Eco-indicator 99 method on the
basis of the Ecoinvent database and showed that the overall environmental impact from the
incineration scenario is approximately 37 times higher than that from landfill. The difference in
overall environmental burden between different studies is mainly because of regionalization,
uncertainties, and geographical variability in the applied inventories and LCIA models. The energy
type and system boundaries considered in each research also played additional roles in this variation.
5.4.Sensitivity analysis
The key sensitivities in this study are the electricity mix to which the smelter is coupled and the
distance which the scrap is transported from its origin. To demonstrate the methodology through this
study, it is assumed that the electricity mix to which the smelter is coupled is the same as that for the
overall region in which the smelter is located. The EWP scenario takes the case of printed circuit
board being available in New South Wales region for recycling to produce copper, silver and gold.
The question to be answered is whether the scrap collected in the major Australian cities should be
trucked to existing smelter in Victoria or shipped to Southeast Asia (China) for recycling in available
reverberatory furnace. The environmental performance is again based on LCA and input-output
models and can be used to allow more informed strategic decision making. The sensitivity of the
environmental performance to transport consideration used in each location is hard to obtain, instead,
Given the major contribution that the power consumption of the various pyrometallurgical processes
makes to the total environmental impact the whole process, and the difficulties encountered in
establishing the various base case values, a sensitivity analysis was carried out by varying the process
power consumptions (electricity) by 10% below the base case values. Table 10 shows the sensitivity
analysis results obtained from the study. A 10% decrease in electricity consumption obtains
approximately 0.23 kg CO2 eq, 0.07 kg oil eq, 0.04 m3, 0.01 kg P eq and 0.01 kg 1, 4-DB eq
environmental benefit in climate change, fossil depletion, water depletion, Freshwater eutrophication
and marine ecotoxicity respectively. For the rest categories and processes, a similar analogy can be
made with the sensitivity results shown in Table 10. As can be seen from data given in Table 10, for
EWP scenario, cut in electricity consumption has the higher environmental benefit in all dominant
categories, except human toxicity, terrestrial eco-toxicity and photochemical oxidant formation. For
SCR scenario on the other hand, 10% reduction in electricity consumption has the lowest
environmental benefit on three categories: freshwater eutrophication, freshwater eco-toxicity and
Table 10 Sensitivity of main contributors, values are presented per functional unit
6. Conclusion
This paper analysed the LCIA of the recovery of copper and other valuable metals from waste printed
circuit board (PCBs) through a base metal secondary pyrometallurgical operation and compared the
results with general secondary copper recycling without adding e-waste to the feed.
Two scenarios have been considered namely, EWP (copper recycling with PCB waste addition) and
SCR (general copper recycling). The study supported by rigorous thermodynamic modelling using
HSC Chemistry 8.0 and FactSage 6.4 thermodynamic packages. HSC Chemistry 8.0 is linked with
GaBi environmental software and was utilized to show how the environmental performance of the
The key findings of this article showed that the impact of the EWP scenario for climate change,
freshwater eutrophication and fossil depletion are significantly higher than those obtained from the
SCR scenario, this is mainly because the metal and oxide dust in EWP scenario needs to be further
refined which is out of the scope of this article. A further investigation on this topic is therefore
required.
A sensitivity analysis was also conducted by varying the process power consumption. It has been
concluded that in EWP scenario, a 10% cut in electricity consumption has the higher environmental
benefit in all dominant categories, except human toxicity, terrestrial eco-toxicity and photochemical
oxidant formation. For SCR scenario on the other hand, 10% reduction in electricity consumption has
the lowest environmental benefit on three categories: freshwater eutrophication, freshwater eco-
toxicity and metal depletion. Climate change yet produces the highest variability.
It could also be concluded that the overall environmental impact of the EWP scenario might be lower
than what has been calculated in this study considering the environmental burden of producing metals
and precious metals from virgin source. The adequate setting of recycling plants requires gathering
and analysis of information on several aspects of material recovery in order to help not only the
design, but also the operation and maintenance of such systems in Australia and in the absence of a
consolidated structure; the most basic choices are yet to be made. In this sense, this study can shed
light on e-waste treatment embedded in existing secondary copper recycling facilities as an effective
alternative for e-waste management, while the comparison between the two introduced scenarios
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