The treatment and recycling of electronic waste (e-waste) is a national priority in Australia. In Australia, only 10% of e-waste generated is recycled and the majority of the unrecycled waste is sent to landfill. This unrecycled e-waste contributes to 70% of the toxic chemicals in landfill, representing a large source of land and water contamination. This has led to environmental and human health concerns, especially as the volume of e-waste is growing faster than any other waste stream. Given its high metals content, e-waste is increasingly considered as a resource for metal values. It has been estimated that, in Australia the value of copper in e-waste is more than US$103 M annually. With a projected rise of 700% in the copper price over the next 25 years, recovering metal values from e-waste seems highly attractive. Currently, no economically feasible technology is available to facilitate their recovery in Australia. Largely due to the scattered population, which incurs a significant cost in transportation of e-waste. A decentralised treatment may be more suitable over centralised treatment for unlocking metal values from e-waste in Australia. This project aims to develop a novel, integrated biohydrometallurgical process that could be used as a decentralised treatment for recovering metals from e-waste. The process eliminates the use of high temperatures as microorganisms are used as catalysts. Further, other low-cost waste materials such as waste organics and sulfur will be employed to drive biogenic lixiviant generation, which can help reduce operating costs. This study will be the first of its kind to assess a complete flow sheet for biohydrometallurgical processing of e-wastes. The techno-economic feasibility of the process will also be evaluated.
Acknowledgements:
NSW Environmental Trust, Murdoch University, CSIRO Land and Water and CSIRO Research Office are acknowledged for funding, and MRI e-cycle solutions for providing e-waste.