E-Waste and Bio-Hydrometallurgical Recovery of Gold: A Review

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  • Abhishek S. Kashinath
  • Karthik C. Padmashali
  • A. O Surendranathan

Abstrakt

Current recycling and processing of e-waste are managed almost entirely by the informal sector or the unskilled labour in India. These amounts are about 95%. They adopt crude recycling activities. These cause irreversible health and environmental hazards. Also the loss of valuable materials results.This is due to the poor recovery of base and precious metals.  Recycling done by the unskilled labour has been disclosed and an alternative recycling strategy which are environment friendly and which aims at higher recovery of materials are being sought. Bio-hydrometallurgy processing technology makes use of microorganisms, bacteria and archea as self-generating biocatalysts to facilitate the dissolution of minerals and manipulation of solution chemistry to achieve recovery or treatment of dissolved metals and elements. The existing methods practiced for recycling of e-waste in India are by pyro-metallurgical and hydrometallurgical routes. Bio-hydrometallurgy offers many advantages over conventional methods, including its relative simplicity, less exacting operational requirements, low energy input, reduced need for skilled labour, and environmental friendliness.    Keywords: E-waste, Bio-hydrometallurgy, Gold, Bacteria Cite this Article Abhishek S. K., Karthik C. P., Surendranathan A. O. E-Waste and Bio-Hydrometallurgical Recovery of Gold: A Review. Journal of Energy, Environment and Carbon Credits. 2015; 5(2): 12–22p.

Publikováno

2015-07-09

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Review Articles