Discarded computer parts could one day wind up fueling your car. That’s because researchers in Romania and Turkey have developed a simple, efficient method for recycling printed circuit boards into environmentally-friendly raw materials for use in fuel, plastic, and other useful consumer products. Their study is scheduled for the May 21 issue of ACS’
Energy & Fuels.
The boom in the use of computers has also created one of the world’s biggest environmental headaches: What to do with all the discarded circuit boards, which contain high levels of pollutants such as heavy metals and flame retardants that can potentially harm humans?
Researchers are seeking ways to remove these toxins so that these scrap materials can be safely recycled.
In the new study, Cornelia Vasile and colleagues collected printed circuit boards from discarded computers and processed the boards with a combination of high temperatures, catalysts, and chemical filtration. The processing method removed almost all of the toxic substances from the scraps, resulting in oils that can be safely used as fuel or raw materials called feedstocks for a wide variety of consumer products, the researchers say.
Source: ACS
Related stories:
Compressor-free refrigerator may loom in the future
Refrigerators and other cooling devices may one day lose their compressors and coils of piping and become solid state, according to Penn State researchers who are investigating electrically induced heat effects of some ferroelectric polymers.
Vegas 'Quantum Spookshow' Demos On-the-Fly Encryption of Streaming Video
Las Vegas shows often are on the cutting edge. Following this tradition, researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues at the National University of Singapore (NUS) have landed gigs this week at Caesar's Palace and the Riviera Hotel and Casino to perform live demonstrations of quantum cryptography, theoretically the most secure form of encryption.
E-Textile Pants Identify Fall-Prone Elderly
(PhysOrg.com) -- A pair of pants may help determine if elderly individuals have a high risk of slipping and falling by sensing fluctuations in their walking gait.
IBM researchers unveil green optical network technology prototype
IBM researchers today unveiled the fastest and most highly integrated optical data bus ever developed. The prototype technology could bring massive amounts of bandwidth in an energy-efficient way to all kinds of machines—from cell phones to supercomputers. This could revolutionize the way we access, use and share information across many different applications.
UMass Amherst Scientists Create Fire-Safe Plastic
Scientists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have created a synthetic polymer—a building block of plastics—that doesn’t burn, making it an attractive alternative to traditional plastics, many of which are so flammable they are sometimes referred to as “solid gasoline.”
IBM researchers demonstrate world's fastest optical chipset
At the 2007 Optical Fiber Conference, IBM scientists will reveal a prototype optical transceiver chipset capable of reaching speeds at least eight times faster than optical components available today.
Chinese develop e-waste technology
Chinese scientists say they have developed a recycling and recovery technology designed especially for disposal of printed circuit boards.
Engineers building first space supercomputer
HAL may soon be getting some company. But unlike the famous computer companion in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the first space-based supercomputer — so described because it will be by far the most powerful computer in space — is already nearing reality.
