Researchers have recycled electronic waste, consuming significantly less energy than with conventional methods. In the future, electronic waste could take on a completely new meaning.
If you want to recycle electronic waste, you currently need very large amounts of energy and expensive machines to recycle efficiently. But that could change soon. A group of researchers has demonstrated in an experiment how to drastically reduce not only energy consumption but also all costs involved.
Gold extraction from waste
from the food industry
What exactly is being used? Whey proteins are a byproduct left over after making cheese and other products. For a long time, it was considered a waste product, but it is now used in sports as a valuable source of protein. The researchers have now found that gold can be extracted from electronic waste using whey proteins.
With whey proteins, energy costs for the entire recycling process can be up to 50 times lower than through conventional means. The team led by scientist Raffaele Mezzenga from the Department of Health Sciences and Technology explained that using this method, they were able to extract about 450 mg of gold from 20 motherboards. This was reported by colleagues from Tomshardware.com.
How does the process work? First, the electronic waste is dissolved in an acid bath to ionize the metals. Then, the sponge is dipped into the metal ion solution. In the bath, the ionized metals adhere to the protein sponge like a magnet attracting metal shavings.
Mezzenga and his research team found that most metal ions can attach to the sponge, but gold ions are much more efficient. To finally extract the precious metals from the sponge, the protein sponge is heated to a temperature at which the gold ions turn into flakes and can easily be detached from the sponge. The researchers then collected these gold flakes.
What does this mean for the future? Electronic waste could become significantly more valuable in the future as recycling and reuse could pay off much more. Tomshardware reports that startups earn around 80,000 euros daily from recycling gold and copper from electronic waste. Improved methods are likely to only accelerate this and change the way computer waste is processed significantly.
More sciences: A research team from China has introduced a new passive cooling system for processors. It is expected to significantly enhance performance while being cheaper in the long run. In an initial practical test, the system reportedly worked very well. And there are more advantages.
