RECYVAL-NANO

"Development of recovery processes for recycling of valuable components from FPDs (In, Y, Nd) for the production of high added value NPs"

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment is considered to increase drastically in the coming decades. WEEE contains considerable quantities of valuable components used in high-tech applications that currently are not recycled. Europe needs to improve and develop Recovery, Recycling and Reuse of critical materials in order to avoid the dependency on imports, high prices and risk of supply imposed by countries owning mineral reserves. RECYVAL-NANO project will develop an innovative recycling process for recovery and reuse of indium, yttrium and neodymium metals from Flat Panels Displays (FPD), one of the most growing waste sources. The project will be addressed not only to the recovery of these critical elements, but also the recycling process developed will result in the direct extraction of metallorganic precursors for direct reuse in the production of high added value nanoparticles that is ITO, Y2O3:Eu3 and Nd-Fe-B. The project will develop an integral study of the recycling process, starting with logistic issues of the waste collection, optimising mechanical sorting technologies and developing innovative ones for the recovery and concentration of smaller fractions containing indium, yttrium and neodymium, developing simplified solvent extraction routes based on tailored chemical extraction agents able to extract a 95 % of the key metal in a metallorganic extracted solutions, and using these extracted solutions as precursors in the direct production of advanced nanoparticles. RECYVAL-NANO will validate the recycling process developed through the construction, optimisation and demonstration of full pilot lines for mechanical recycling of FPDs (500 kg/h) and hydrometallurgical metal recovery processes (500 g/h). Finally, the demonstration of the superior performance application of ITO, Y2O3:Eu3 and Nd-Fe-B nanoparticles in electronic applications of transparent conductors, LEDs and permanent magnets respectively will complete the entire cycle of the project.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

An innovative recycling programme aims to both reduce electronic waste and recover critical rare earth metals through recycling of flat panel displays (FPDs).

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Rare earth metals from the Earth's crust are used in many high-tech applications such as electronics, computers, superconductors, lasers and clean-energy technologies like wind turbines. With ever-increasing demand for these vital elements placing a strain on their limited supply, sources that are not dependent on natural resources must be found.

The EU-funded http://www.recyval-nano.eu/ (RECYVAL-NANO) project aims to recover and recycle rare earth metals from electrical and electronic equipment for the production of nanoparticles.

FPDs, found in flat-screen TVs, mobile phones, digital cameras and many other devices, are a major electrical waste source. RECYVAL-NANO, together with industrial partners that are expert in electrical waste handling and recycling, is therefore developing an innovative strategy for mechanically recycling FPDs.

Their first step was to enhance the amount and purity of metal-containing fractions from FPDs by optimising mechanical sorting and extraction techniques. They improved manual dismantling procedures to separate high-value materials from waste, and developed a technique based on magnets for separating and concentrating desired metals.

RECYVAL-NANO has also investigated ways to extract pure solutions containing the metals of interest, for direct use in the production of nanoparticles. This involved optimising hydrometallurgical processes (which use solvents to extract metals), and refining fractions obtained from mechanical recycling to concentrate and recover the valuable metal.

Ultimately, RECYVAL-NANO hopes to develop a global FPD recycling process by mechanically separating valuable materials, as well as hydrometallurgical processes for refining rare earth metals. Likely impacts include avoiding natural resource overexploitation, benefiting the environment by reducing electronic waste, and lessening the reliance of EU countries on resource-rich nations.