Copper Smelting for Recycling Electronic/Electrical Scrap and Valorisation of Copper Slags

Dear Colleagues,

Due to the remarkable development and growth of the electronic industry in the last two decades, both the number of consumers and businesses producing electronic products have increased phenomenally while the prices of new products have decreased. When paired with the fact that the average lifetime of an electronic product has diminished as well, the result is a massive generation of end-of-life (EoL) products. It was estimated that in 2018, 50 million tons of WEEE (Waste Electronic and Electrical Equipment) was generated. WEEE contains precious metals (PM) like gold, silver, and palladium along with other valuable and critical metals such as lithium, nickel, and cobalt. These need to be recovered and hence used again. On the other hand, to mitigate the climate change the industries and businesses should follow the principles of sustainability along with the circular economy operational mode. Therefore, recycling of all streams in a process with no or absolutely minimum waste generation is of utmost importance. This Special Issue topic targets the recycling of electrical/electronic scrap through copper smelting, which itself should approach sustainability and circular economy mode by recycling and valorisation of the slag formed.

Papers discussing both the fundamental and applied issues in this emerging field are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Rauf Hürman Eriç
Guest Editor

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• copper smelting
• copper smelting slag
• electrical/electronic scrap
• recycling
• valorization of copper slag