Recovering metals from printed circuit board scrap by a mechanical separation process

A mechanical separation process was developed for recovering metals from printed circuit board (PCB) scrap; it included three steps: impact crushing, sieving and fluidization separation. The mechanism of the technique was based on the difference in the crushabilities of metallic and nonmetallic materials in the PCBs that led to the concentrated distribution of metals in particles of larger sizes and nonmetals mostly in particles of smaller sizes. It was found that crushed PCB particles from 0.125 mm to 1.000 mm contained about 80% of metals in the PCBs. Metals acquired satisfactory liberation in particles smaller than 0.800 mm. The crushed PCB particles were sieved into fractions of different size ranges. Each fraction separately went through a gas-solid fluidized bed operating at a selected optimal gas velocity for the specific size range. Approximately 95% of metals in printed circuit board particles from 0.125 mm to 0.800 mm was recovered by the gas-fluidized bed separator at the selected optimal gas velocity. However, separation of metals from particles smaller than 0.125 mm was not satisfactory. Further study is needed on metal recovery from fine particles.