Electrochemical enhanced metal extraction from E-waste

Electronic and electrical equipment has become a buzzword in the world of solid waste management and metal recovery due to large volumes of precious metals utilized in the making of these equipment. For the most of the studies nowadays revolve around recovering the metals from e-waste using large amounts of solvents that tend to be highly toxic with a specific limit on the recovery. Electrochemical techniques are vital to convert the metallic ions generated in the first few steps of hydrometallurgy, that is, performing the leaching operations followed by separation using solvent extraction to upgrade to metal ions. Electrochemical processes are utilized to recover the metallic ions to bare metals, which can be later utilized as secondary resources for the metal industries. This chapter focuses on the electrochemical processes to enhance the recovery of these different elements that are being accumulated from the e-waste and further details the solvent, electrode, conditions required for optimizing the migration of the target metals that either present in the electrolytes as leachate or as anode scrap.