TY - JOUR
AU - Li, Xiaoqing
AB - PurposeBy 2024,  the stock of waste mobile phones in China exceeded 2 billion, leading to a significant increase in waste-printed circuit boards (WPCBs), which contain valuable metals as core components. However, because WPCBs also pose environmental risks, efficient recycling is essential to balance resource recovery and control pollution. This study applies life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes, identify environmental hotspots, and propose improvements for waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) recycling.MethodsBased on the industrial data of enterprises, according to the standards in the ISO 14040 series and the Recipe 2016 method, environmental hotspots were identified through a comprehensive evaluation of the hydrometallurgical recovery route in WPCB recycling. From the product perspective, the environmental impacts of the hydrometallurgical recovery of three metals were compared, and primary metal production was incorporated into the assessment to explore the benefits of metal recycling. In addition, the environmental impact of the pyrometallurgical recovery of copper was analysed, and the disparities in environmental impacts, resource consumption and pollutant emissions between the hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes were compared. Moreover, directions for improving the two routes were determined through sensitivity analysis.ResultsThe highest environmental burden was generated during the leaching and extraction process in the hydrometallurgical recovery, and the environmental burden for recycling copper was much higher than that for recycling gold and palladium. The recycling of all three metals had environmental benefits, particularly precious metals, compared to primary metal production. In the pyrometallurgical recovery of copper, incineration contributed the greatest environmental burden. Pyrometallurgy demonstrated better environmental performance than hydrometallurgy. Contribution and sensitivity analyses showed that reducing electricity consumption was the most effective way to improve environmental performance. In addition, the significant difference in energy consumption originated from the high electricity consumption in hydrometallurgy. The pollutants generated by both recovery technologies require targeted remediation.ConclusionsThe shift towards a cleaner power structure will significantly enhance the environmental impact of WEEE recycling, particularly in the recycling of WPCBs. Pyrometallurgical recovery may be more environmentally friendly than hydrometallurgical recovery; however, hydrometallurgy offers a higher recovery rate, and a wider range of metals can be recovered.
TI - Life cycle assessment of printed circuit boards recycling from waste mobile phones
JF - The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
DO - 10.1007/s11367-025-02466-3
DA - 2025-06-04
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/life-cycle-assessment-of-printed-circuit-boards-recycling-from-waste-JOAZkiNyJz
SP - 1
EP - 17
VL - OnlineFirst
IS - 
DP - DeepDyve
ER -