(446g) Integrated Approach for the Recovery of Metals and Valuable Materials from Waste Random Accesses Memory

E-waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams and contains various toxic substances. Therefore, it is important to recycle the e-waste from the aspect of resource conservation and prevention of environmental and human health hazards.

In the present study, powdered RAM (random access memory) was employed as a feedstock was pre-treated using supercritical ethanol in a high pressure reactor. The supercritical pre-treatment of RAM results in the conversion of plastic fraction into a valuable product (contains phenol and other valuable chemicals), which can be utilized as a raw material in industries. The concentrated metal fraction obtained is then treated with 1M CH₃COOH with H2O2 as an oxidizing. In the next step, the precious metal (Au) is extracted by using Thiourea as a leaching agent. Therefore, the present innovation demonstrates noteworthy and efficient approach for the long-term eco-friendly recovery of valuable metals and materials from abundant waste resources.