Rematronic: project to recovery precious metals from electronic waste

ABSTRACT

The large and grown amount of electronic waste (e-waste) demand technological solutions to minimize the environmental impact. In this context, the recycling of e-waste, focused on the recovery of precious metals from printed circuit boards (PCBs), emerges as a sustainable solution to reduce environmental impact and creates employment and income through the recycling processes.

In this direction, the Center for Information Renato Archer (CTI), supported by National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and a Brazilian company called "Gerenciamento de Resíduos Industriais (GRI)", is developing a national technology to recovery precious metals from PCBs. This development is under a project named REMATRONIC. For a better adaptation to a Brazilian context as volume of e-waste and geographical characteristics, the project will avoid pyrometallurgy and adopt a hydrometallurgy and biohydrometallurgy as the main routes. This paper aims to present the REMATRONIC project and technologies to recovery precious metals from PCBs. It is expected this technology became a mechanism to add more value to the recycling chain in Brazil thus contributing to economic viability of e-waste reverse logistics.

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