Substance flow analysis of the recycling of small waste electrical and electronic equipment [Elektronische Ressource] : an assessment of the recovery of gold and palladium / vorgelegt von Perrine Chancerel

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• Publié par: technische_universitat_berlin
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

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ITU-Schriftenreihe, 2010
Institut für Technischen Umweltschutz
09



Substance flow analysis of the
recycling of small waste electrical
and electronic equipment

An assessment of the recovery of gold
and palladium



Perrine Chancerel











Substance flow analysis of the recycling
of small waste electrical
and electronic equipment
An assessment of the recovery of gold and palladium



vorgelegt von
Perrine Chancerel
Ingénieur diplômée de l’INSA de Lyon


von der Fakultät III - Prozesswissenschaften
der Technischen Universität Berlin
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades
Doktor der Ingenieurwissenschaften
– Dr.-Ing. –

genehmigte Dissertation

Promotionsausschuss:

Vorsitzender: Prof. Dr. Matthias Finkbeiner
Berichter: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vera Susanne Rotter
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Pretz
Dr.-Ing. Christian Hagelüken

Tag der wissenschaftlichen Aussprache: 4. Dezember 2009

Berlin 2010
D 83

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Schriftenreihe des Institut für Technischen Umweltschutz
Band 09, 2010
Herausgeber Institut für Technischen Umweltschutz
Der Geschäftsführende Direktor, Sekr. KF 2
Straße des 17. Juni 135
10623 Berlin
www.itu.tu-berlin.de
Redaktion Cornelia Genz



D83





ISSN 1864-5984
ISBN 978-3-89720-555-0




































Para Lola.
6 Acknowledgements

Here I would like to acknowledge my gratitude to people who helped me to put across my
doctoral thesis.
First of all I would like to thank my supervisor Susanne Rotter for her advices and for the
many discussions we had. I am indebt to you for the trust you gave me, for all the freedom,
the material and immaterial support that you provided.
I wish to thank Thomas Pretz for accepting to be the second supervisor of the thesis.
I am very happy that Christian Hagelüken accepted to become officially a supervisor. He
helped me for this research from the very beginning, providing ideas and opening doors
through his many contacts and his extensive knowledge. I hope you will continue building
bridges between academia and industry.
I am very grateful to all the colleagues at the chair of solid waste management of Berlin
University of Technology, especially to Florian Groß, the “mother of us all”. Thanks also to
Margit Löschau, Mechthild Baron, Til Bolland, Annekathrin Lehmann and Silvia Zunk for
being nice and helpful. The diploma or project theses of Til Bolland (again), Wolf-Peter Schill,
Robert Rauch, Youwei Kou, Ming Zhang, Dajiang Zhao und Michael Srocka brought very
valuable information, thank you.

I had the chance to visit another research institute with a very friendly atmosphere, the
Center for Industrial Ecology of Yale University. Thanks to Barbara Reck for exchanging
ideas and letting her son play with me, to Reid Lifset for the coffee and the very interesting
discussions and to T.E. Graedel for making my research stay in Yale possible. I also want to
acknowledge the many experts I met in these years, especially Alexander Janz, Eva
Leonhardt, Christina Meskers, Jaco Huisman, John Bullock, Markus Reuter, Otmar Deubzer,
Jörg Woidasky, Horst Broehl-Kerner and Atsushi Terazono. Thanks to Oliver Cencic and his
colleagues for the STAN-Freeware. Also thanks to the operators of the recycling facilities I
visited and to the numerous persons I met during workshops and conferences.

I would also like to thank the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt for the 3-years doctoral
scholarship, for supporting and trusting me. Thank also to the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft for financing my stay at Yale.

Last but not least, I am pleased to acknowledge my friends and family for having listened so
long to my “trash discussions”, for instance Ronny, Annie, Wolfgang, Mareile, Patrick & Isa,
their children, and the Jelly Bears-“joggers”. I am lucky to have you.

7 Abstract

The demand for precious metals by manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment has
increased significantly over the past few years. Although precious metal concentrations in
appliances are very low, these metals have a high economic and environmental relevance
compared to other substances present at much higher levels (for example iron, copper,
plastics).
This thesis aims at describing and quantifying the flows of small waste electrical and
electronic equipment (sWEEE) in Germany and in the USA for the year 2007, as well as the
flows of gold and palladium associated with the sWEEE. Although collection systems have
been set up, in many cases sWEEE is not collected separately for recycling but instead is
disposed of. Regarding treatment of sWEEE, the model differentiates between reuse and
treatments carried out by the formal and informal sector (including illegal export of sWEEE).
The material flows were quantified based on a combination of expansive experimental
investigations and a review of the relevant literature. The results revealed that, in 2007,
370 000 to 430 000 tonnes of sWEEE were generated in Germany, containing 1.9 to 2.4
tonnes of gold and 580 to 720 kg of palladium. In the USA, 26 to 36 tonnes of gold and 9 to
12 tonnes of palladium were contained in the 3.1 to 4.3 million tonnes of sWEEE generated
in 2007. In Germany, the collection rates are much higher (77% of the generated sWEEE is
collected) than in the USA (30%). In the USA, 6% of the generated sWEEE is reused,
whereas in Germany the reuse rate amounts to 3%. 72% of the gold contained in the sWEEE
was discarded in Germany and therefore lost for the recycling economy. The discarding rate
is around 75% for the USA. The economic value of the discarded gold and palladium in 2007
amounted to 34 to 44 million US-dollars in Germany and 466 to 714 million US-dollars in the
USA.
In conclusion, the recycling infrastructures in Germany and in the USA do not allow an
efficient recovery of the precious metals. The losses are caused by the non-separated
collection of sWEEE and by inappropriate treatment, for instance during pre-processing. The
characteristics of the different types of sWEEE considerably influence the recovery of
precious metals. This has to be considered by developing strategies to improve it. Besides
the recommendations how to improve the system, some suggestions to improve the data
collection for the conduction of further substance flow analyses were formulated. The applied
methodology can be used to assess waste management systems and develop improvement
strategies. The method is not only useful for assessing the recovery of valuable substances
as presented in this thesis, but in a more general way allows a quantitative analysis of the
destination of substances fed into a waste management system.

8 Kurzfassung

Die Nachfrage nach Edelmetallen von Herstellern elektrischer und elektronischer Geräte ist
in den letzten Jahren bedeutsam gestiegen. Obwohl die Edelmetallkonzentrationen in den
Geräten sehr niedrig sind, sind diese Metalle wirtschaftlich und ökologisch relevant,
verglichen mit anderen in höheren Konzentrationen enthaltenen Stoffen (z.B. Eisen, Kupfer,
Kunststoffe).
Das Ziel dieser Dissertation ist es, die Stoffflüsse von kleinen elektrischen und
elektronischen Altgeräten (Kleingeräten) in Deutschland und in den USA bezogen auf das
Jahr 2007 zu beschreiben, sowie die mit den Kleingeräten verbundenen Flüsse von Gold
und Palladium zu quantifizieren. Obwohl Sammelsysteme für Kleingeräte existieren, werden
Kleingeräte häufig nicht erfasst sondern im Restabfall entsorgt. Bezüglich der Verwertung
von Kleingeräten unterscheidet das Modell Wiederverwendung und Behandlung durch den
formellen und den informellen Sektor (inklusive illegalen Export von Kleingeräten).
Die Stoffströme wurden, basierend auf einer Kombination von aufwendigen experimentellen
Untersuchungen und Literaturauswertung, quantifiziert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass 370 000
bis 430 000 Tonnen von Kleingeräten 2007 in Deutschland angefallen sind. Sie beinhalteten
1,9 bis 2,4 Gold und 580 bis 720 kg Palladium. In den USA befanden sich in den
2007 angefallenen 3,1 bis 4,3 Million Tonnen Altgeräten 26 bis 36 Tonnen Gold und 9 bis 12
Tonnen Palladium. In Deutschland sind die Sammelquoten deutlich höher (77%) als in den
USA (30%). In den USA wurden 6% der angefallenen Kleinger