| As e-waste continues to pile up at landfills around the world, an Australian scientist has provided a viable solution to this growing environmental threat, according to Veena Sahajwalla, a material scientist at the University of New South Wales. 'We are all micro Miners. "Sahajwalla's declaration becomes less exaggerated when it comes to the millions of electronic hardware devices we throw away each year, and it turns out that e-waste is rich in valuable resources: about 6,000 separate devices such as cell phones can be decomposed Approximately 130 kg of copper, 3 kg of silver, 340 g of gold and 140 g of palladium are produced.  But this is just the tip of the iceberg, Sahajwalla said: 'Australia has nearly 25 million mobile phones' and these are unused.' When you consider the large number of discarded TVs, computers, tablets and other appliances, the number According to statistics from the United Nations Environment Program, only 42 million tons of obsolete electronic equipment are generated in the global $ 1 trillion electronics industry by 2014, with the potential loss of up to $ 52 billion worth of embedded resources. Everything comes down to? Sahajwalla believes that it is time for us to do some environmental clean-up and when we do it. Sahajwalla and colleagues recently formed SMaRT and are currently working to make e-waste safer and more profitable, and the goal of these efforts is now to shape the low cost of alternative smelting on an industrial scale Products. "Sahajwalla calls them 'mini factories' whose size is related to the size of the container, where the combination of robotic arm and automated drone divides e-waste into separate parts such as glass screens, printed circuit boards and plastic housings The proprietary SMaRT Center Visual Identification Program helps with this process, In general, these mini-mills will eliminate valuable metal alloys, composites, ceramics and micro-materials while safely eliminating any dangerous effects, and since these materials already have considerable market value, they can be used to make everything from jewelery to aircraft The hardware is everything, so manufacturers are expected to become ready-made buyers of recycled products.Micro-factories can be used at lower temperatures to melt plastics into 3D printed fibers, as well as other high-value plastic products.Although plastic does not sound Like silver and gold are as profitable, but it may not be as far away as you think. At present, the team is still in the design stage, but the benefits are obvious if they are able to move these micro plants to the site. By decentralizing the recycling business, Sahajwalla's system will allow e-waste to be processed locally at the collection site. Will help eliminate the harmful emissions that are far away from transporting waste to recycling plants, which will also create viable new business opportunities for small-scale recycling plants that could theoretically shift from waste collection to high-value products. All in all, Sahajwalla believes The SMaRT Center for Innovation 'has great potential for Australia to make something a bit different from e-waste in the rest of the world.' |
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