Pollutant Formation During the Thermal Decomposition of Electrical and Electronic Wastes

Abstract

In this contribution we present the results of the research done at the University of Alicante in the last four years [1-7] about the thermal decomposition of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Several materials have been studied, including PVC and halogen-free wires, printed circuit boards and casing from mobile phones, as well as brominated flame reatardants used in the EEE preparation such as TBBPA (tetra-bromo-bisphenol-A). Several experiments were performed in a nitrogen atmosphere (pyrolysis runs) and also in an oxidative atmosphere with different oxygen concentrations. Thermogravimetric runs were used to characterize samples, and a horizontal laboratory reactor was used to study the formation and destruction of pollutants during the thermal decomposition of these samples. More than 150 compounds, including carbon oxides, light hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), chlorophenols (ClPhs), chlorobenzenes (ClBzs) and bromophenols (BrPhs) have been identified and quantified. Furthermore, polychlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and polychlorodibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), polybromodibenzo-p-dioxin and polybromodibenzofurans (PBDD/Fs), and dioxin-like PCBs produced were analyzed.