Recycling Gadgets

We greet you. Today we would like to raise a topic that is not too popular among manufacturers and users. This is a topic for recycling outdated and obsolete electronics. Any device sooner or later breaks down, or becomes unnecessary, and ends up in a landfill. In a number of countries, caring and executive citizens donate old equipment for recycling, sincerely believing that in this way they do not pollute the world. Alas, in the best case, they do not pollute their country, just electronic waste is transported overseas . Of course, some still go to recycling, but very small.

And sales of phones, smartphones, tablets and other gadgets are growing. Now they will be joined by a watch, on the way virtual reality glasses. And all this technique contains about a third of the periodic table. About what our gadgets consist of and how well they can be processed, read our translation .

By the end of this year, around 1,800,000,000 mobile phones will be sold worldwide. And in just a few years, approximately 44% of them will roll around unnecessary. Approximately the same share will be resold in the secondary market, and 4% will end up in landfills. And only 3% will be handed over for processing.

These depressing statistics are provided by Hywel Jones of Sheffild Hallam University.) On average, a modern mobile phone contains about 300 mg of silver and 30 mg of gold. The concentration of gold in the phone is 50 times higher than in the ore in the mine. These two metals alone will be used for $ 2.5 billion this year.

In total, our phones consist of approximately 40 chemical elements . And of these, only 17 can be recycled at 95% at best, even in complex enterprises with smelting and electrolysis workshops such as the giant Umicore in Antwerp, Belgium. In developing countries, where manual disassembly of electronics is often used, the degree of processing is much lower, and is associated with an increased risk of poisoning by various harmful substances, including heavy metals and acids.

In an effort to discourage the growth of this problem, private technology firms are developing systems that will help process mobile phones easier, faster and harmlessly. At the same time, scientists are hoping that architectures that extend the lifespan of devices — like modular phones with replaceable component blocks — will at least radically reduce the number of devices lying around unnecessarily on boxes, shelves, and tables around the world.

However, a number of market analysts doubt the viability of some radical approaches that look very far-fetched and pretentious. “A lot of crazy“ revolutionary ”and“ breakthrough ”technologies become just a loss of money, which is very typical for areas where governments and corporations run the show”, says Research Director of Lux Research . The complete processing of all materials used in telephones is a large and complex problem requiring a search for solutions from a considerable number of disciplines. To create such a technology requires close cooperation between chemists, engineers, designers and businessmen.

Clever

The English project CLEVER ( Closed Loop Emotionally Valuable E-waste Recovery ), dealing with the recycling problem, promotes the concept of a phone that is "aging gracefully." It is based on the idea of ​​using fully soluble boards to facilitate the extraction of various metals. According to the plan of the project participants, their phone should consist of a certain frame, a “skeleton”, to which various “organs” are attached: a battery, a display, a motherboard, etc. All of these components will be easily replaceable. $ 2.1 million was allocated for the development of this project, which began last year, and the completion of development is planned for 2016.



CLEVER experts, together with researchers from Lockboro University, are also studying the mechanism of consumers' emotional attachment to their gadgets. Scientists are trying to figure out how to extend this attachment and how to encourage people to hand in unnecessary devices for recycling. To do this, experiments are conducted with various materials to increase the attractiveness of even a new phone.

One of the main problems in processing is the procedure for separating plastics from metals and subsequent sorting. For example, in Australia, parts from different plastics are simply mixed, crushed, and used to make items like hedge posts. Therefore, CLEVER is developing cellulose-based materials for the frame and the printed circuit board. Also evaluated are new mixtures of combustion inhibitors, hydrophobic additives and fillers with low dielectric constant. When such a phone needs to be recycled, enzymes designed for this purpose will help turn cellulose into sugars. And for the extraction of metals, the CLEVER team is going to develop separation methods, including selective dissolution in ionic liquids, followed by reduction, for example, by the galvanic method.

Modular telephone

The idea of ​​creating a modular phone has a bad reputation. In 2007, an Israeli start-up Modu introduced a smartphone that was inserted into electronic modules and turned into a camera or music player. The company went bankrupt shortly after the release of the product, which was criticized for being proprietary, cumbersome, and the limited number of modules. Later development of Modu was acquired by Google. The corporation plans to introduce its vision of a modular smartphone next year. Apparently, Apple and ZTE, the largest Chinese phone manufacturer, are developing their options.

The prototype of the device from Google will be an aluminum frame with eight slots for functional modules and two slots for additional functions like a keyboard. Unlike bulky Modu connectors, Google uses magnets to connect modules. Also in the plans of the search corporation is to attract "hundreds of thousands of developers" to create modules. Google's partner company, Newton, is developing an initial lineup that includes an oximeter for measuring blood oxygen levels and night-time lenses.

Bioprocessing

In addition to developing longer-lived phones, a lot of effort is being made to develop more efficient and less harmful processes for extracting materials from older phones. Today, this is most often done using large-scale smelting and electrolysis. In developing countries, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids (aqua regia) is often used to extract gold.

The EU recently developed a technology for the phased extraction of materials without melting and the use of strong acids. Circuit boards are removed from the phones, which are then crushed and sieved. Plastics and metals are separated by flotationin which the bubbles raise particles of hydrophobic plastic to the surface, which are removed mechanically. At the same time, pieces of metals remain at the bottom, which are subjected to hydrometallurgical processing.

Gold is leached out of the remaining precipitates using the chloride-hypochlorite method, and then filtered on mats from mycelium. This so-called biomining method allows extracting up to 80% of gold. When the “mushroom” filter is saturated with metal, it is either re-leached or the biomass itself is salted, simply burned. This bio-method is much more environmentally friendly compared to remelting, during which a large amount of emissions is generated.

eVOLV

Entegris , in turn,, a major supplier of materials for the electronics industry, has announced the creation of a closed-loop recycling process called eVOLV, which can recover up to 98% of valuable metals at room temperature and 30-40% cheaper than during melting. In this case, microcircuits are removed from the motherboards, and lead, tin and silver are removed using acid. 70% reusable mix consists of water and does not contain solvents, surfactants, cyanide or aqua regia. The authors claim that their process allows 1 kg of useful materials to be extracted from 1 kg of waste, non-waste production. Metals are reduced either in pure form or in the form of oxide powders. Microchips are sold for recycling or reuse. A separate processing stage is dedicated to the selective dissolution of precious metals. All the water used in processing, is cleaned and reused. Printed circuit boards are sold for the extraction of copper, iron or aluminum.

The authors of the process claim that eVOLV is modular, that is, certain stages can be added or excluded, depending on the current situation.

Skepticism

However, not all technologies are destined to live and develop. Most ideas, including bioprocessing, can never be commercially viable and go into oblivion. In fact, no matter how potential the above technologies have, it does not seem that the largest melting companies are somehow worried about this. For example, the aforementioned Umicore intends to increase its production capacity by 40%, investing more than $ 100 million in it. After that, they will be able to recycle about 500,000 tons of electronic waste per year.

Conclusion

Both traditional and innovative processing companies may not notice each other as much as they want, but they cannot deny one thing: old gadgets will be enough for all of them. If you somehow make people pull them from far corners. This applies not only to mobile phones, but to the rest of the electronics, including televisions, tape recorders, radios, etc. And against this background, YotaPhone looks rather more profitable than others. As you remember, the second non-liquid ink display allows you to use your smartphone as a reader for e-books. That is, one device replaces the traditional and already familiar bunch of ordinary smartphones and readers. Which sooner or later will turn into electronic garbage. Yes, like YotaPhone. But in his case, the waste will be half as much. And if you recall how many readers are sold in the world,