UrbanGold Technology - the solution for an economical and sustainable recycling of electronic scrap

摘要

Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) - also referred to as electronic waste or e-waste - is one of the fastest growing waste streams, growing at 3-5% per year in the EU. Worldwide, more than 45 million metric tonnes of WEEE is generated each year. As a secondary raw material, WEEE contains valuable metals, as there are copper and nickel for example. However, its crucial characteristic is the high content of the precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. Over the past years, UrbanGold GmbH (a spinoff of METTOP GmbH) together with the support of SMS group GmbH, developed a flexible recycling plant, which can recycle almost all kinds of e-wastes at a high yield for all relevant valuable metals. The process consists mainly of pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical process steps and is superior compared to the state-of-the-art conventional technology and allows the recovery of all valuable metals according to LME grade quality. The first plant of this innovative technology will be commissioned in Russia.