Industrial Gases AppSheet

Electronics Recycling Plants

What is a recycling plant? Recycling plants focused on electronics

will always have a need for N2.
A recycling plant reprocesses used or abandoned materials.
While a large number of materials can be salvaged (paper,
plastics, metal, wood, glass, textile, …), the use of an inert gas
like nitrogen (N2) mostly concerns the recycling of electronics.
The reason is simple: while other types of recycling might also
use inert gases for fire prevention, electronics recycling always
requires it because of its inherent risk of these fires and
explosions.

Electronics recycling plants process household appliances

such as refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, Zink 1. First treatment
computers and printers. A large plant can handle 50 000 tons 2. Hazardous waste

COOLING AGENT
of electronic waste per year. Brass
4

RECYCLING
3 5 3. CFC containers
Copper N2 4. Cooling agent recovery
Cooling devices are of specific interest in recycling safety. Aluminium 5. Cooling agent storage
Since the mid 1990s, more environmentally friendly cooling 6. Main shredder
Ferrous
agents have gradually replaced the traditional CFCs (also 7. Ferrous
known under the brand name Freon). A common PCB remainings
12 8. Al, Cu, Zn, Brass
characteristic of these newer materials is their flammability, 6 N2 9
Metal concentrate 9. Flotation separation
which presents extra challenge in terms of recycling. For this

RECYCLING
STANDARD
14
10. Plastics
reason, all recycling plants must be fire and explosion proof.
11. Solid fuel
1 10 11 13
8 2 5 12. Shredder
The end product of electronics recycling is high quality 7
13. Cu, Pd
6 7

granulates which can be reused in the production of new

14. Waste
equipment. The circuit boards of old electrical appliances –
15. PCB's (manually dismantled)
and specifically their copper, gold, silver and palladium parts 15 12 18 19
16. PCB remainings
– are particularly valuable.

RECYCLING
2
N2 17. Ferrous & Al

PCB
17 16 18. Pyrolysis oven
20
Besides for the main shredder, N2 might be used for 19. Combustible gas
cooling agent recovery, and in the pyrolysis oven. 20. Metal concentrate
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Industrial Gases AppSheet

Electronics Recycling Plants

How does electronics recycling work?

1. Inlet section
First, hazardous materials such as batteries, oil, lead, and toners are removed by hand. Next,
2. Transfer section
a large shredder reduces the equipment to material fractions and individual elements. Then,
3. Shredding section
copper and ferrous materials are separated with a large magnet from the non-ferrous and 4 4. N2 feed
plastic fractions. The latter two are then separated out further.
5. Shredder mill
6
3 6. Air locks
The oxygen (O2) content of the shredding chamber must be kept low enough to eliminate the
7. Control & monitoring system
risk of explosion while shredding. That is why this chamber is sealed off with an air lock. By
8. Conveyor belt
injecting the inert gas, O2 is removed and an inert atmosphere is created. Sealing off the
7
chamber also prevents the cooling agents, which can be harmful to the environment, from
escaping into the atmosphere.
2

Recycling plants cannot operate safely without control and monitoring systems. The 5
shredding chamber has an O2 sensor and a control system to ensure the O2 concentration is
kept sufficiently low. When O2 levels rise, inert gas is added. If for some reason this gas would
not be available, the plant comes to a stop. That is why inert gas supply contingencies, such as
a redundant installation, could be considered to help maintain productivity.
6 6
Besides the shredder there are 2 other processes consuming inert gas which you might find in
1
these plants. A first one is cooling agent regeneration, where under an inert atmosphere as
much as possible of the refrigerant gas is recovered. Another one is PCB (Printed Circuit Board)
recycling, where the aim is to recover the precious materials used in those, which is done in a
pyrolysis oven. Pyrolysis is the chemical decomposition of a material due to high temperature.
When pre-shredded PCBʼs are exposed to this very high temperature and without O2 in the
room, their plastic parts will vaporize, while the precious metal parts melt. This separation is
By sealing off several chambers in
only possible in a low O2 environment, otherwise the PCBʼs would just burn. the shredder the O2 level can be
8
controlled in an efficient way,
without an overconsumption of N2.

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Industrial Gases AppSheet

Electronics Recycling Plants

Why is nitrogen used instead of air or CO2?

1
The use of an inert gas is a mandatory safety measure in electronics recycling. Therefore, the use of regular 1. N2 dosing point
compressed air is already out of question. Inerting the shredder atmosphere with a gas allows the safe processing of 2. O2 measurement
3
combustible materials, regardless of their amount and the strength of the ignition source. IN 2
3. PID control
4. Process control valve
LOC or Limiting Oxygen Concentration is an important parameter central to fire safety. As from this concentration, a 5. N2 source
substance can no longer combust. When the O2 concentration in the shredder is below the LOC of the flammable
gases inside, the shredding process can be safely executed because the risk of explosion has been eliminated. OUT SET

N2 is not the only inert gas out there. For fire prevention carbon dioxide (CO2) would be its closest competitor. With its
5
higher heat capacity, CO2 would technically be even better suited for this job. But the higher cost of the gas and the
N2
measures needed to safely dispose of it, make it rarely a serious competitor for N2. 4

A PID control system is dosing the

required amount of N2 into the main shredder chamber to create a safe atmosphere.

fuel %
Which purity is required? 1. Upper Explosion Limit 3. Danger zone
2. Lower Explosion Limit 4. Explosive zone
The most accurate way to calculate this is to check which flammable gases are considered in 5. Safe zone UEL 7.8% 3
5
1
the process, and then look up their LOC. If next you consider a safety factor of 2, youʼll have Acetone 10.0 Hydrogen 4.6
the best possible purity advice. Benzene 11.4 Methane 11.1
Butane 10.6 Pentane 10.6 4 LOC
When checking this for a few substances youʼll find that 95% will do the job in most of cases. Carbon Monoxide 5.1 Propane 10.7
For some extreme exceptions, like hydrogen (H2), 98% would be a correct advice. With that Ethane 9.5 Styrene 9.0 LEL 5.3%
Heptane 10.0 Toluene 9.5 2
1.4% /2
purity you can conquer all substances the shredder will ever see. 10.6%
LOC acc. NFPA 69:2014 (at 25°C – 1013mbar(a))

Along with a stable consumption profile, this shouldnʼt be the hardest application to size for. Let's take Pentane as example, having a LOC of 10.6%. O2 % 21% 0%
Dividing by 2 (safety factor) makes 5.3% as max. O2 Moving (far enough) into the green zone by limiting the O2
concentration, in other words an inert gas purity of 94.7%. concentration, is the easiest way to ensure a completely safe situation.
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