Aluminum recovery from electronic scrap by High-Force® eddy-current separators

The amount of electronic scrap which contains a substantial portion of non-ferrous metals, primarily copper and aluminum, has been growing. The present study is directed toward aluminum recovery by a newly developed eddy current separator. The investigation on shredded personal computer and printed circuit board scrap demonstrates that the High-Force® eddy-current separator will be applicable for this purpose. It has been shown that, by a single pass of the materials on the High-Force® eddy-current separator, an aluminum concentrate out of personal computer scrap can be obtained with a purity of 85%, while maintaining a recovery in excess of 90%, with the feed rate being up to 0.3 kg/min.