Tungsten carbide is widely used in carbide tools. However, its production process generates a significant number of end-of-life products and by-products. Therefore, it is necessary to develop efficient recycling methods and investigate the remanufacturing of tungsten carbide using recycled materials. Herein, we have recovered 99.9% of the tungsten in cemented carbide hard scrap as tungsten oxide via an alkali leaching process. Subsequently, using the recovered tungsten oxide as a starting material, tungsten carbide has been produced by employing a self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) method. SHS is advantageous as it reduces the reaction time and is energy-efficient. Tungsten carbide with a carbon content of 6.18 wt % and a particle size of 116 nm has been successfully synthesized by optimizing the SHS process parameters, pulverization, and mixing. In this study, a series of processes for the highefficiency recycling and quality improvement of tungsten-based materials have been developed.

This study focuses on the development of an alkaline leaching hydrometallurgy process for the recovery of tungsten from WC/Co hardmetal sludge, and an examination of the effect of the process parameters on tungsten recovery. The alkaline leaching hydrometallurgy process has four stages, i.e., oxidation of the sludge, leaching of tungsten by NaOH, refinement of the leaching solution, and precipitation of tungsten. The WC/Co hardmetal sludge oxide consists of WO3 and CoWO4. The leaching of tungsten is most affected by the leaching temperature, followed by the NaOH concentration and the leaching time. About 99% of tungsten in the WC/Co hardmetal sludge is leached at temperatures above 90oC and a NaOH concentration above 15%. For refinement of the leaching solution, pH control of the solution using HCl is more effective than the addition of Na2S·9H2O. The tungsten is precipitated as high-purity H2WO4·H2O by pH control using HCl. With decreasing pH of the solution, the tungsten recovery rate increases and then decrease. About 93% of tungsten in the WC/Co hardmetal sludge is recovered by the alkaline leaching hydrometallurgy process.

This research was performed to evaluate heavy metal leaching characteristics of the sludge from paper mill process with sintering temperature. Heavy metal leaching of the sludge was characterized with Korean Leaching Test and Toxicity Characteristic Leaching Procedure. The test sludge was composed of 70.72% of moisture, 9.5% of volatile solids and 9.76% of fixed solids. As a result of XRF analysis, Fe was the highest inorganic element in approximately 83%, which implies the recycling possibility of the sludge in reuse of Fenton chemicals and artificial lightweight aggregate. Leaching of heavy metals from sintered sludge was lower than the dry ones. However, there was no significant difference in leaching characteristics between the sludges sintered at 350℃ and 650℃. Zn and Fe were leached more greatly in TCLP and KLT methods respectively.

The main objective of this study is to recovery valuable metals with metal particle size distributions in waste cell phone PCBs(Printed Circuit Boards) by means of pulverization and nitric acid process. The particle size classifier also was evaluated by specific metal contents. The PCBs were pulverized by a fine pulverizer. The particle sizes were classified by 5 different sizes which were PcS1(0.2 mm below), PcS2(0.20~0.51 mm), PcS3(0.51~1.09 mm), PcS4(1.09~2.00 mm) and PcS5(2.00 mm above). Non-magnetic metals in the grinding particles were separated by a hand magnetic. And then, Cu, Co and Ni were separated by 3M nitric acid. Particle diameter of PCBs were 0.388~0.402 mm after the fine pulverizer. The sorting coefficient were 0.403~0.481. The highest metal content in PcS1. And the bigger particle diameter, the lower the valuable metals exist. The recovery rate of the valuable metals increases in smaller particle diameter with same leaching conditions. For further work, it could improve to recovery of the valuable metals effectively by means of individual treatment, multistage leaching and different leaching solvents.