Abstract
Tantalum (Ta) is the one of the most critical elements according to the European Commission. Research on tantalum recovery from secondary sources such as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), bottom ash and by products of the industrial activities, however, is limited. In this study, the recovery potential of tantalum from spent tantalum capacitors was tested using bioleaching. Three different kinds of microorganisms were tested for tantalum recovery, which were Pseudomonas putida (DSM No. 6125), Bacillus subtilis (DSM No. 1088532), and Penicillium simplicissimum (DSM No. 1078). It turned out that P. simplicissimum has the ability to leach tantalum from wasted tantalum capacitors with a maximium leaching rate of 1.25 g Ta per kg sample. An unknown species achieved the highest leaching rate (9.88 g Ta / kg sample) but isolation and identification failed. The potential of tantalum recovery by bioleaching is demonstrated, however, further research needs to be carried out.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
[1] Wikipedia, Tantalum Search, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantalum, access18/3/2017.
[2] Ueberschaar M, Dariusch Jalalpoor D, Korf N, Rotter VS (2017). Potentials and barriers for tantalum recovery from waste electric and electronic equipment. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 21(3): pp 700-714.
[3] Information of tantalum capacitors, http://www.jb51.net/hardware/MotherBoard/13078.html, access 30/3/2017.
[4] Zhong J (2003). Research status and development trend of chip tantalum capacitors. Rare Metals. 11, pp 1-3.
[5] Tantalum Resources Reserves and Mineral Production, http://baike.asianmetal.cn/metal/ta/resources&production.shtml, access 19/3/2017.
[6] Kucuker M (2018). Biomining Concept for Recovery of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) from Secondary Sources. Verlag Abfall aktuell der Ingenieurgruppe RUK GmbH, Stuttgart, Hamburger Berichte; Bd. 48.
[7] Wencheng Gao (2016). Summary of metallurgical technology for the treatment of niobium and tantalum ore. Rare metals. 1
[8] Valuable Substances in e-waste, http://ewasteguide.info/valuable_materials_in_e_waste, access 26/3/2017.
[9] Katano S (2014). Recovery of Tantalum Sintered Compact from Used Tantalum Condenser Using Steam Gasification with Sodium Hydroxide. APCBEE Procedia. 10: 182-186
[10] The method of tantalum recovery, http://baike.asianmetal.cn/metal/ta/recycling.shtml, access 26/3/2017.
[11] Gurung M (2013). Recovery of gold and silver from spent mobile phones by means of acidothiourea leaching followed by adsorption using biosorbent prepared from persimmon tannin. Hydrometallurgy. 133: pp 84–93.
[12] DSMZ website. https://www.dsmz.de/home.html, access 20/8/2017.
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the financial support from BMBF (The Federal Ministry of Education and Research) through the project ªBiotechnological Approach For Recovery Of Rare Earth Elements And Precious Metals From E-Waste (BIOREEs), Project Number: 01DL14004. We are grateful to Asma Sikander, Ayah Alassali, Julia Hobohm, Nils Wieczorek, and Jinyang Guo as they helped us during the experimental study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer-Verlag GmbH Deutschland, ein Teil von Springer Nature
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kucuker, M.A., Xu, X., Kuchta, K. (2019). Extraction Potential of Tantalum from Spent Capacitors Through Bioleaching. In: Pehlken, A., Kalverkamp, M., Wittstock, R. (eds) Cascade Use in Technologies 2018. Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57886-5_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-57886-5_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-57885-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-57886-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)