Comparison and Evaluation of Concepts for a Future Recycling Process Regarding Attrited Lead Anodes Used in the Electrowinning Process of Non-ferrous Metals

The production of metal is a starting point for the manufacture of almost every technical product. An important process step of the extractive metallurgy of non-ferrous metals like copper, nickel or zinc is the electrowinning process using electroplating with insoluble anodes.This paper outlines three concepts to recycle anodes which were subjected to heavy wear during the electrowinning process. The goal is to ensure sustainability within the process of anode manufacturing by reusing components and recovering raw materials. State of the art is a manual process of resource recovery which contains three mayor problems: High energetic effort, health effects for employees and heterogenic quality due to manual processing.The comparison and evaluation of three recycling concepts is the first step to develop an automatic process to recycle anodes in a sustainable manner regarding a reduced energy effort, an effective resource recovery and reduced health effects for employees.