A method for recovering platinum group metals, includes melting a material to be treated containing platinum group metals, under heating in a furnace, along with a copper source material containing at least one kind of metallic copper and copper oxide, a flux component, and a reducing agent. The molten metal absorbing the platinum group metals is separated from a slag oxide through difference in specific gravity. The molten metal absorbing the platinum group metals is subjected to an oxidation treatment. An oxide layer containing as a major component copper oxide and a molten metal containing as a major component metallic copper containing the platinum group metals concentrated therein are separated through difference in specific gravity. A silver content in the molten metal separated in melting under heating is controlled to 2,000 ppm or more and 8,000 ppm or less, thereby recovering platinum group metals with high efficiency.

An automated, high throughput system that mechanically separates electrode tips from spark plugs to facilitate recovery of platinum group metals in the electrodes. Spark plugs may be fed into the system in bulk and an automated mechanism under computer control executes a sequence of operations to feed plugs in a fixed orientation and at a controlled rate to a robot arm. The robot arm has a gripper that securely holds a set of spark plugs and passes them across a cutting tool to separate tips from the bodies. The gripper has independently actuated finger assemblies that accommodate plugs of varying shapes. A visual inspection system ensures that spark plugs are oriented with the tips facing in the same direction to simplify operation of the robot and the cutting tool. The tips may be processed to extract the contained valuable metals; the remaining bodies may be recycled as iron scrap.

A system for treating infectious waste is provided that employs a medical waste handling and shredding sub-system that feeds partially processed waste to an oxidizer to eliminate potential airborne infectious waste prior to transforming the medical waste into useful co-products. Medical waste is transformed into value added products including hydrocarbon based gases, hydrocarbon-based liquids, carbonized material, and recovered precious metals and rare earth materials in a system having as its transformative element an anerobic, negative pressure, or carbonization system. With medical waste as a feedstock for the production of valuable products, an economically viable and environmentally more responsible alternative to traditional methods of medical waste treatment is realized.

The invention is directed to a process and apparatus for metal refining, in particular for refining a mixture of conductive particles, such as heavy non-ferrous particles. In accordance with the invention a feed containing a mixture of conductive particles is fed to a dissolution unit, wherein the less noble metal is separated from a metal of interest in the presence of one or more acids or complexing agents, thus producing a stream having a concentrated less noble metal and producing a conductive stream containing a metal of interest. The conductive stream is then fed to a refining unit, wherein the conductive stream is separated in a stream of concentrated metal(s) of interest and a stream of concentrated conductive particles.

The invention relates to a method for multi-metal products recovery from pyrolytic waste integrated circuit boards. The method mainly comprises the steps of smelting and blending, atomization, acidolysis and filtration, noble metal recycling, copper extraction and back extraction, nickel extraction and back extraction. Compared with the prior art, the method has the advantages that smoke pollution and the smelting slag treatment in the process of preparing a black copper ingot through multi-metal collaborative smelting are reduced, and the problems of low anode efficiency of the black copper electrolysis process are solved. Meanwhile, the high-temperature high-oxygen atomized gas generated in the atomizing process provides a heat source and an oxygen source for subsequent acidolysis, so that the energy consumption is further reduced. The method has the advantages such as short process, remarkable energy conservation and emission reduction.

PGM converting process and jacketed rotary converter. The process can include low- or no-flux converting; partial pre-oxidation of PGM collector alloy; using a refractory protectant in the converter; magnetic separation of slag; recycling part of the slag to the converter; smelting catalyst material in a primary furnace to produce the collector alloy; and/or smelting the converter slag in a secondary furnace with slag from the primary furnace. The converter can include an inclined converter pot mounted for rotation; a refractory lining; an opening in a top of the pot to introduce converter feed; a lance for injecting oxygen-containing gas into the alloy pool; a heat transfer jacket adjacent the refractory lining; and a coolant system to circulate a heat transfer medium through the jacket to remove heat from the alloy pool in thermal communication with the refractory lining.

A method for recovery of gold from gold-containing materials, such as electronic waste material, minerals and sands is described. The method includes crushing the gold containing material to obtain a particulate material. The particulate material is then preheated in an oxygen-containing gas environment in a preheating zone. The method also includes mixing the oxidized particulate material with a chlorine-containing material and treating the mixture in a reaction zone. The treatment is carried out by heating the mixture to provide thermal decomposition of the chlorine-containing material and produce a chlorine-containing gas mixture, and by applying an electromagnetic field to the chlorine-containing gas mixture to provide ionization of chlorine. A volatile gold-containing chloride product, produced in the reaction zone as a result of a chemical reaction between gold and chlorine ions, is then cooled to convert the volatile gold-containing chloride product into solid phase gold-containing materials.

Ultrafast flash Joule heating synthesis methods and systems, and more particularly, ultrafast synthesis methods to recover precious metals recovery and other metals from electronic waste (e-waste).

Ultrafast flash Joule heating synthesis methods and systems, and more particularly, ultrafast synthesis methods to recover metal from ores, fly ash, and bauxite residue (red mud).

The invention relates to a method for multi-metal products recovery from pyrolytic waste integrated circuit boards. The method mainly comprises the steps of smelting and blending, atomization, acidolysis and filtration, noble metal recycling, copper extraction and back extraction, nickel extraction and back extraction. Compared with the prior art, the method has the advantages that smoke pollution and the smelting slag treatment in the process of preparing a black copper ingot through multi-metal collaborative smelting are reduced, and the problems of low anode efficiency of the black copper electrolysis process are solved. Meanwhile, the high-temperature high-oxygen atomized gas generated in the atomizing process provides a heat source and an oxygen source for subsequent acidolysis, so that the energy consumption is further reduced. The method has the advantages such as short process, remarkable energy conservation and emission reduction.