Life cycle assessment of a novel metal recovery method from co-processing of coal mine waste and low-grade printed circuit boards

Abstract

A double waste stream problem arises from the increasing use of electrical and electronic equipment and their energy consumption: potentially toxic wastes from the equipment itself and potential acid mine drainage from the waste of the coal mines that provide the fuel to cover the energy demand. CEReS (Co-processing of Coal Mine & Electronic Wastes: Novel Resources for a Sustainable Future) is a novel method to co-process the coal mine and low-grade PCBs waste to reduce their environmental impacts while producing metals and other valuable products. The aim of this study is to investigate whether CEReS method is more environmentally friendly than the conventional practices of landfilling and incineration. Based on a Polish coal mine case study, our study found that the CEReS method could potentially eliminate the environmental impacts related to toxicity but increase the climate change impacts by ten times. A sensitivity analysis has shown that using a lower carbon electricity mix could reduce the climate change and fossil depletion impacts. It is also recommended to reduce water and energy requirements in some stages of the method.