new technology for e-waste recycling

[hatemelborai]

I found this company during searching for new technology in e-waste processing.

The eVOLV process from ATMI can extract most metals from the circuit boards at 99% extraction efficiency with greater than 99% purity
http://www.atmi-evolv.com/the-evolv-process

I have watched to the process it use high technology to remove components from PCB

http://www.atmi-evolv.com/multimedia
they remove components in 10 min, my processing take hrs using fluoroboric acid

 

[Lou]

Entegris knows their stuff.

I wonder what the lixivant is?

 

[alexxx]

After watching the video at http://www.atmi-evolv.com/multimedia I'm really not convinced.
The price of such a unit is probably outrageous.
Impossible to use for anyone who has a medium / large size operation (putting the boards manually 1 by 1 in trays, c'mon like we have time to do this)...
They claim they have 98% recovery of PMs, while in the video we still see gold on the cpus (not to mention that the ceramic ones have not been broken to leach the inside).
The blank boards and chips unprocessed, still lots of PMs trapped in there. And no, you wont be able to resell 98% of the chips collected (that need to be sorted manually too for reuse, c'mon, we don't have time for all this sorting).

Just by watching the video, it's obvious this unit is totally useless. Lot's of cool flashing lights and gizmos, but useless...

 

[solar_plasma]

Thanks for sharing.

They claim they have 98% recovery of PMs, while in the video we still see gold on the cpus (not to mention that the ceramic ones have not been broken to leach the inside).

This video is full of claims, pseudo facts teared out of the context and obvious implausibilities. And I can't see anything in it, that hasn't been covered in the forum more or less or in texts mentioned in the forum. Fuoroboric acid for recovery of tin has been covered. A dozen alternative leaches have been covered. Electrolytic recovering from the leaches has been covered. I just can't see anything new. Most of the scrap has to be processed further (by conventional methods) or has to be reprocessed, if they want to come near 98% recovery. Looking at the slow work flow, it is looks more like a prototype.

But indeed, it looks very nice.

 

[Anonymous]

I lost faith when they showed the ceramic processors with the gold leeched from the fingers but complete with their caps on, and then said they were effectively waste, or for copper reclamation.

 

[Gratilla]

I wonder what the lixiviant is?

Based on the reported pH operating range (ie 4-7), my guess would be that the active species is hypochlorous acid (HOCl).

A cheap aqueous recipe would be:
200 gm/L NaCl - salt
200 gm/L Ca(OCl)2 - calcium hypochlorite

This gives:
aqueous chlorine (Cl2) below pH 3.5,
hypochlorous acid (HOCl) between pH 3.5 and 7.5, and
hypochlorite ion (OCl) above pH 7.5

The above "recipe" starts at a pH around 11, but should settle down in the optimum pH range; can be tweaked with HCl and NaOH (or Ca(OH)2), if necessary.

 

[bswartzwelder]

Gratilla,

You mention hypochlorous acid being made with salt and calcium hypochlorite. Wouldn't it also need hydrochloric acid? If so, how much.

At any rate, I think I'll order one of these machines for the spare space in my basement. Anyone else interested? Maybe we could get a quantity discount.

Bert

 

[hatemelborai]

After watching the video at http://www.atmi-evolv.com/multimedia I'm really not convinced.
The price of such a unit is probably outrageous.
Impossible to use for anyone who has a medium / large size operation (putting the boards manually 1 by 1 in trays, c'mon like we have time to do this)...
They claim they have 98% recovery of PMs, while in the video we still see gold on the cpus (not to mention that the ceramic ones have not been broken to leach the inside).
The blank boards and chips unprocessed, still lots of PMs trapped in there. And no, you wont be able to resell 98% of the chips collected (that need to be sorted manually too for reuse, c'mon, we don't have time for all this sorting).

Just by watching the video, it's obvious this unit is totally useless. Lot's of cool flashing lights and gizmos, but useless...

Dear Alexx
you are right, I asked my self same questions, I am wondering that they remove the components in 10 -20 mins, I am using fluoroboric acid with hydrogen peroxide, removing solder take about 4 hrs.

 

[Anonymous]

It's old tech. They talk about lead in the solder so the video was made before ROHS even came into effect. It's also remarkably slow and clumsy, notwithstanding how totally inaccurate some of the descriptions are.

 

[richoc]

98% recovery means they lost 2% at this point.
Wow they have not even but processed the scrap about 25%

If I process nothing .........I have 0.00000% losses, and costs.