Kinetic Study of the Pyrolysis of Waste Printed Circuit Boards Subject to Conventional and Microwave Heating

Jing Sun, Wenlong Wang, Zhen Liu, Qingluan Ma, Chao Zhao and Chunyuan Ma
Additional contact information
Jing Sun: National Engineering Laboratory for Coal-fired Pollutants Emission Reduction, Energy and Power Engineering School, Shandong University, 17923 Jingshi Road, Jinan, Shandong 250061, China
Wenlong Wang: National Engineering Laboratory for Coal-fired Pollutants Emission Reduction, Energy and Power Engineering School, Shandong University, 17923 Jingshi Road, Jinan, Shandong 250061, China
Zhen Liu: National Engineering Laboratory for Coal-fired Pollutants Emission Reduction, Energy and Power Engineering School, Shandong University, 17923 Jingshi Road, Jinan, Shandong 250061, China
Qingluan Ma: National Engineering Laboratory for Coal-fired Pollutants Emission Reduction, Energy and Power Engineering School, Shandong University, 17923 Jingshi Road, Jinan, Shandong 250061, China
Chao Zhao: National Engineering Laboratory for Coal-fired Pollutants Emission Reduction, Energy and Power Engineering School, Shandong University, 17923 Jingshi Road, Jinan, Shandong 250061, China
Chunyuan Ma: National Engineering Laboratory for Coal-fired Pollutants Emission Reduction, Energy and Power Engineering School, Shandong University, 17923 Jingshi Road, Jinan, Shandong 250061, China

Energies, 2012, vol. 5, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: This paper describes a kinetic study of the decomposition of waste printed circuit boards (WPCB) under conventional and microwave-induced pyrolysis conditions. We discuss the heating rates and the influence of the pyrolysis on the thermal decomposition kinetics of WPCB. We find that the thermal degradation of WPCB in a controlled conventional thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) occurred in the temperature range of 300 °C–600 °C, where the main pyrolysis of organic matter takes place along with an expulsion of volumetric volatiles. The corresponding activation energy is decreased from 267 kJ/mol to 168 kJ/mol with increased heating rates from 20 °C/min to 50 °C/min. Similarly, the process of microwave-induced pyrolysis of WPCB material manifests in only one stage, judging by experiments with a microwave power of 700 W. Here, the activation energy is determined to be only 49 kJ/mol, much lower than that found in a conventional TGA subject to a similar heating rate. The low activation energy found in microwave-induced pyrolysis suggests that the adoption of microwave technology for the disposal of WPCB material and even for waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) could be an attractive option.

Keywords: kinetic study; microwave-induced pyrolysis; waste printed circuit boards (WPCB); activation energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/5/9/3295/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/5/9/3295/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:5:y:2012:i:9:p:3295-3306:d:19802

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().