Recovery of waste metals is an important step during an aircraft's recycling process, a process which has become harder and more dangerous due to the presence of different toxic components.
It's in that context that this study has investigated the effects of different électrolytes (HCl, NaOH, HNO₃, H₂SO₄, H3PO4, NH4OH)on the separation and recovery of waste metals layers using the electrochemical treatment with a 3v constant voltage. In addition, the influence of electrolyte concentrations (10, 5, 3, 1) mol/l were studied after choosing the most effective electrolyte, and the separation processes were compared with and without electrochemical treatment. In order to analyze the microstructure of aircraft samples, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), equipped with EDS, and opto-digital microscopy were used.
The SEM image results show that the aircraft waste contains seven layers, with different compounds, the major elements being Aluminum, chromium and titanium. It was observed that hydrochloric acid has the best result on complete solving of the middle layer that contains highest Aluminum element, which facilitates the release of the other layers. The increase of hydrochloric acid concentration and the use of electrochemical process make the separation of layers 14 times faster.
The procedure has successfully separated and recovered three layers (aluminum layer, chromium layer and titanium layer). Hence, the separation process has recovered approximately 466 kg of aluminum, 37 kg of chromium and 138 kg of titanium from 1 ton of waste metal.
| Date | 21 Sept 2016 |
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| Original language | French |
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| Awarding Institution | - École de technologie supérieure
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| Supervisor | Robert Hausler (Supervisor) |
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Benyahia, D. (Author),
Hausler (Supervisor),
21 Sept 2016Student thesis: Master's thesis › Master in Engineering: Environmental Engineering