Technical advancement in valorization of electronic waste and its contribution to establishing economic value-chain

Abstract

The rapid expansion of the electronics industry has entailed unavoidable generation of electronic waste (e-waste) in a massive quantity. Although e-waste contains varying degrees of precious metals and rare earth elements, a substantial portion of e-waste is ended up in landfills and incineration facilities. These management practices preemptively eliminate the possibility of recovering those elements from e-waste and often lead to environmental contamination. Nonetheless, there has been a consistent increase in the global demand for those critical metals, resulting in a steady rise in their prices. To address this issue, researchers have put multifaceted efforts to reclaim e-waste as a renewable resource. Several metallurgical techniques have proven to be effective in refining precious and rare earth metals from e-waste. Besides, thermochemical process has been developed to convert plastic materials in e-waste into fuel gases and other value-added chemicals. These approaches contribute to establishing economic value-chain of e-waste. To this end, this review critically discusses up-to-date technical advancements in e-waste reclamation processes with an emphasis on their potential role in realizing a circular economy. Lastly, the studies on life-cycle assessment of e-waste are reviewed to assess the environmental and industrial consequences of current reclamation processes.