Co-treatment of waste printed circuit boards and polyvinyl chloride by subcritical water oxidation: Removal of brominated flame retardants and recovery of Cu and Pb

In this work, an effective process for removal of brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and recovery of Cu and Pb from waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) was developed. In the process, waste PCBs and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) were co-treated by subcritical water oxidation (SBWO). PVC was used as a hydrochloric acid source and waste PCBs was used as a neutralizing reagent for the produced HCI. The dechlorination of PVC, removal of BFRs, and recovery of Cu and Pb could be achieved simultaneously by the one-step SBWO reaction. Experimental results showed that the dechlorination of PVC was complete when SBWO temperature exceeded 250 degrees C. SBWO co-treatment was high efficient for the leaching of Cu and Pb from waste PCBs, and XRD spectra indicated that Sn was immobilized as SnO2 in the residue after co-treatment. The optimum SBWO co-treatment conditions were temperature of 350 degrees C, time of 60 min, solid-liquid ratio of 1:9 g/ml, and PVC-to-PCBs ratio of 1:1, respectively. In the optimized co-treatment, 98.9% of Cu and 80% of Pb were recovered, while the leaching efficiencies of Sn and Cr were 15.3% and 3.9%, respectively. Meanwhile, approximately 100% of the bromine was changed Into HBr and enriched in water after co-treatment. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.