Precious metals recovery from waste materials using an induction furnace

Abstract

A method of recycling electronic waste and recovering valuable metal components from electronic waste which involves feeding electronic wastes such as cell phones, computers, pagers, personal data assistants, handheld global positioning devices, MP3 players, calculators, batteries, etc. into an induction furnace that is changed with a mass of liquid iron. A portion of organic components of the electronic waste can be removed prior to feeding the electronic waste into the induction furnace and/or volatilized or decomposed in the induction furnace. The metal components of the electronic waste form separate liquid layers in the induction furnace that are separated according to their densities. The separated metals layers are recovered either in a solid or liquid phase.

1 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes which comprises: 
 providing an induction furnace;    maintaining a charge of iron in the induction furnace;    feeding electronic wastes into the induction furnace;    allowing inorganic components of the electronic waste fed into the induction furnace to volatilize or be decomposed;    allowing volatile metal components of the electronic waste to volatilize;    allowing other metal components of the electronic waste fed into the induction furnace to melt and separate by density into different metal layers within the induction furnace; and    recovering the different metal layers from the induction furnace.    
   
   
       2 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 1 , wherein the electronic wastes consists of handheld consumer electronic devices.  
   
   
       3 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 2 , wherein the consumer electronic devices comprise at least one of a cell phone, computer, a pager, a personal data assistant, a handheld global positioning device, an MP3 player, and a calculator.  
   
   
       4 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 1 , wherein the recovered metal layers comprise at least one of gold and silver or alloys of these metals.  
   
   
       5 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 1 , wherein a portion of the organic components of the electronic waste is removed before the electronic waste is fed into the induction furnace.  
   
   
       6 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 5 , wherein the portion of the organic components of the electronic waste is removed by reducing the size of the electronic waste and removing organic components after the size reduction.  
   
   
       7 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 6 , wherein the removed organic components are subject to recycling.  
   
   
       8 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 6 , wherein the metal components of the electronic waste that are fed into the induction furnace are pre-heated.  
   
   
       9 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 1 , wherein the process is a continuous process.  
   
   
       10 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 1 , wherein the process is a batch process.  
   
   
       11 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 1 , wherein the different metals that are recovered are subject to additional purification processes.  
   
   
       12 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the different metals is recovered in a liquid form.  
   
   
       13 . A method of recovering metals from electronic wastes according to  claim 1 , wherein at least one of the different metals is recovered in a solid form.  
   
   
       14 . A method of recycling electronic wastes including cell phones, computers, pagers, personal data assistants, handheld global positioning devices, MP3 players, and calculators, which method comprises: 
 providing an induction furnace;    maintaining a charge of iron in the induction furnace;    feeding the electronic wastes into the induction furnace;    allowing inorganic components of the electronic waste fed into the induction furnace to volatilize or be decomposed;    allowing volatile metal components of the electronic waste to volatilize;    allowing other metal components of the electronic waste fed into the induction furnace to melt and separate by density into different metal layers within the induction furnace; and    recovering the different metal layers from the induction furnace.    
   
   
       15 . A method of recycling electronic wastes according to  claim 14 , wherein the recovered metal layers comprise at least one of gold, silver and platinum.  
   
   
       16 . A method of recycling electronic wastes according to  claim 14 , wherein a portion of the organic components of the electronic waste is removed before the electronic waste is fed into the induction furnace.  
   
   
       17 . A method of recycling electronic wastes according to  claim 16 , wherein the portion of the organic components of the electronic waste is removed by reducing the size of the electronic waste and removing organic components after the size reduction.  
   
   
       18 . A method of recycling electronic wastes according to  claim 14 , wherein the removed organic components are subject to recycling.  
   
   
       19 . A liquid bath that comprises a mass of liquid iron and the metal components of a charge of electronic waste that was added to the mass of liquid iron and melted therein.  
   
   
       20 . A liquid bath according to  claim 19 , wherein the electronic waste comprises at least one of cell phones, pagers, personal data assistants, handheld global positioning devices, MP3 players, and calculators.  
   
   
       21 . A liquid bath according to  claim 20 , wherein the liquid iron comprises about 25 to 75 percent of the volume of the total bath.