Copper Electrodeposition from Green Ammonia

Description

Electronic waste is considered one of the fastest growing solid wastes due to shortening service lifespan of electronic products and their increased consumption (Sun et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2021). Copper being a critical material for electrical supplies and electronic components, governments are trying to develop a circular economy for copper, based on the exploitation of resources recovered from wastes, such as printed circuit boards (WPCBs) as they contain a significant portion of the value embedded into e-wastes (Koyama at al., 2006, Cucchiella et al., 2015). The recovery of copper using a circular economy would not only reduce the use of virgin resources, but also circumvent supply insecurity of this critical material.
In this work we report the development of an electrodeposition process for copper from discarded/recovered copper wires and cables, which would be transported overseas and recovered using carbon-intensive pyrometallurgical means; our process examines the feasibility of recovering copper from such waste using hydrometallurgy.
In addition to a circular economy, the process is based on a hydrogen vector, ammonia, which can be produced from green (or blue) hydrogen, thereby providing a decarbonised route. As an essential basis for building up a near to industry process, this project focuses on the design and construction of an electrochemical reactor for a hydrometallurgical copper recovery process to produce copper films or foils.

Period	27 Jun 2023
Event title	13th European Symposium on Electrochemical Engineering : 13th ESEE, Toulouse, France
Event type	Conference
Location	Toulouse, FranceShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International