This is a two-year research project. In this project, plant-type machinery will be used for the recycling test of used motherboard of CRT TV and LCD monitor. A series of crushing, grinding and screening process were used to separate used printed circuit board into metals and glass fiber/resin mixture. The recycled metal powder will be further purified and transfer into chemicals by hydrometallurgical method. The metal content of used motherboard is about 60 to 70%. In this study, the metal in the used motherboard will be recovered effectively as single metals, mixed metal pallet, and copper-based metal powder. In the recovering process, air pollution due to the high-temperature treatment may be avoided. The results showed that the first stage of shreddering and screening process can recover 40 to 45 percent of metal from the used PCB of CRT TV. In the second stage of shreddering and screening process, 10 to 15% of metal was recovered as mixed metal pallet. In the third stage of recycling process, 3 to 5% of metal was further recovered as metal powder. The overall recycling process can recover more than 95 percent of metal from used PCB.

Used printed circuit board, metal recovery, physical treatment, hydrometallurgy