PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, March 24: National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML), Jamshedpur has signed a historic agreement with M/s Eyantram Waste Management Private Limited, Visakhapatnam, under which an e-waste recycling plant will be set up through technology transfer and the plant will process the waste printed circuit boards through recycling and extract precious and valuable metals like Copper (Cu), Aluminum(Al) and Gold(Au) etc.
Focus on Zero Waste and Environmental Impact
This MoU was signed today and with this agreement, Eyantram Waste Management Private Limited will work on the “Zero Waste” concept, which will reduce the pressure on the environment and improve the process of waste collection and disposal by organizing the unorganized sector.
The technology is environment friendly and with its proper disposal, the environment will be clean, unemployed youth will get jobs and unorganized units will be able to get organized and collect and dispose of waste through this plant. Municipal units will also be able to contact this company and dispose of the waste.
The technology transfer was graced by a group of experts from CSIR-NML, including Sandip Ghosh Chowdhury, Director, CSIR-NML, Manis Kumar Jha, Project Leader, Dl Sanjay Kumar, Head of MER, Jhumki Hait and a team of researchers.
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Apart from this, Business Head S.K. Pal and Beena Kumari helped in getting the technical transfer documentation done.
Anjani Kumar Sahu pointed out to the press and media about the future possibilities in India in the field of recycling and in the MoU-related works.
The team was instrumental in completing the necessary documentation and formalizing the transfer of this innovative technology.
E-Waste Recycling: A Global Necessity for India
NML’s technology will be used to dispose of waste printed circuit boards at Eyantram Waste Management Private Limited.
Like many developed countries including China, Japan, America, South Korea, India will also dispose of e-waste.
NML has developed the technology for this. National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML) has already developed technology for e-waste disposal at national and international level. NML’s technology will be used to recycle waste printed circuit boards at Eyantram Recycling Company and extract precious and valuable metals like gold, copper and aluminium etc.
E-waste will be disposed of with the help of this technology, this company will also extract precious metals like non-ferrous metals.
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The establishment of such companies will provide employment to the educated unemployed. Municipal bodies can also take advantage of this.
According to NML, if the amount of e-waste keeps increasing day by day like this, then in future, heavy metals and other pollutants coming out of electronic waste will prove to be harmful for human health and environment.
Excitement Around the New Venture
Aashish Lohia, Director, M/s Eyantram Waste Management Private Limited, Visakhapatnam, who is expanding his business and now entering into the business of e-waste recycling expressed his enthusiasm about the new venture in e-waste recycling.
Aashish Lohia said, “I am very excited to be part of this transformative initiative, bringing CSIR-NML’s PCBs recycling technology to the forefront of e-waste management in India. It is our goal to create a pollution-free society while ensuring the preservation of precious natural resources for future generations”.
Sandip Ghosh Chowdhury, Director of NML, Jamshedpur expressed his happiness and said, “NML has transferred many indigenous technologies to Indian companies and hope that in future we will enter into more and more tie-ups to make India an e-waste free society.”
Project head and chief scientist, Manis Kumar Jha said “I feel very happy that me and the team of NML are working in accordance with the cleanliness mission of the Government of India. Many companies within the industrial sector are satisfied with our technology. With the proper implementation of this technology, we can expect a cleaner environment and the creation of employment opportunities for unemployed youth.”
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Environmental Benefits and Technological Process
Waste PCBs will be recycled using NML’s technology in Eyantram Waste Management Private Limited, Visakhapatnam.
The increasing generation of waste PCBs presents a significant environmental challenge, making their proper disposal and recycling of crucial metals necessary to prevent contamination from toxic substances because of excessive metallic concentrations.
The unregulated and inefficient recycling of PCBs often leads to the loss of valuable metals and the release of harmful metals into the environment. The technology developed by NML, implemented at Eyantram in Visakhapatnam, addresses this issue by offering an environmentally friendly solution for recovering metals such as gold (Au), copper (Cu), and aluminium (Al) from waste PCBs.
This approach not only reduces environmental pollution but also prevents the contamination of soil through industrial waste and sewage.
The technology transfer process begins with the mechanical pre-treatment process of waste PCBs to obtain a metal concentrate, followed by leaching in appropriate lixiviants to extract metals into the leach liquor.
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This is then purified using solvent extraction and evaporation/electro-winning techniques to recover high-purity metals and salts.
This innovation will raise awareness, new avenue/start-ups for new entrepreneurs and businesses in the field of waste recycling.
The successful transfer of this environmentally friendly technology is expected to significantly reduce the ecological footprint of e-waste while simultaneously recovering high-value metals, which are crucial in numerous industries.
