Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4753388 | Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering | 2017 | 8 Pages |
Abstract
To seek a feasible technique for processing waste printed circuit boards (PCBs), pretreatment of PCBs by table separation and further bioleached by moderate thermophiles in a stirred tank reactor were investigated. The shaking table separation, conducted after grinding and sieving of PCBs, produced two fractions: metal-rich parts (RPCBs), which is more suitable for pyrometallurgy process than untreated PCBs, and metal-poor parts (PPCBs) with only 8.83% metals was then bioleached by a mixed culture of moderate thermophiles effectively. After adaptation, the mixed culture could tolerate 80Â g/L PPCBs. The bioleaching results showed that metals recovery was 85.23% Zn, 76.59% Cu and 70.16% Al in only 7 days. Trace Pb and Sn were detected in the leachate because of precipitating. The microorganism community structure was analyzed by amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis. Two moderately thermophilic bacteria species were identified as Leptospirillum ferriphilum and Acidithiobacillus caldus. Furthermore, uncultured Thermoplasmatales archaeon was also detected in the leaching system. It was also shown that moderate thermophiles revealed best bioleaching ability when compared with mesophiles and the mixture of mesophiles and moderate thermophiles. Finally, we designed a two-stage process model according to the present study to achieve semi-industrial waste PCBs recycling and economic feasibility analysis indicated that the process was profitable.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Bioengineering
Authors
Ming-Chen Xia, Ya-Ping Wang, Tang-Jian Peng, Li Shen, Run-Lan Yu, Yuan-Dong Liu, Miao Chen, Jiao-Kun Li, Xue-Ling Wu, Wei-Min Zeng,