• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.29-33
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• 2001

The production of Secondary Non-ferrous Metals (SNM) is characterized by low investment, energy consumption and cost, less pollution as well as rather simple technology. In the past years, the SNM industry has seen relevantly rapid progress in China. Especially in the filed of clean hydrometallurgical treatment certain novel technologies for recovery and separation have successfully been elaborated, and a number of medium and small commercial plants established. On the basis of four common metals Cu, Al, Pb, Zn, and Ni, Co, this paper describes the status quo and progress of SNM industry in China, indicating that a lot of work should still be done in salvage of waste metals. It is recommended that measures for collecting and classifying SNM resource should be strengthened and the research on new technologies for scavenging such metals should be supported.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.3-14
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• 2019

Lead is one of the common non-ferrous metals used in modern industry. The usage of lead continues to increase and has risen from 5 million tonnes per year worldwide in the 1970s to 11 million tonnes in the 2010s. In principle lead is virtually 100 % recyclable as an element without loss of quality. The recycling of lead scrap reduces the energy consumption and environmental burden, comparing to the primary metal production. Therefore production of secondary lead from scrap has been steadily growing and at present it meets approximately 60 % of usage worldwide. Lead scrap (mainly lead-acid battery) is smelted in primary and secondary smelter. Most secondary lead smelting were performed in a shaft-type furnace (blast furnace), rotary furnace and reverberatory furnace. The lead bullion is either cast into ingots and re-melted in refining kettles or refining is performed on the hot lead bullion immediately after production. This work provides an overview of the primary lead production and recycling process.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.30-41
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• 2019

Global production of zinc is about 13 million tons and zinc is the fourth-most widely used primary metal in the world following iron, aluminum and copper. When zinc is recycled to produce secondary zinc, it can save about 75 % of the total energy that is needed to produce the primary zinc from ore, and in therms of $CO_2$ emissions reduced by about 40 %. However, since zinc is mainly used for galvanizing of steel, the recycling rate of zinc is about 25 %, which is lower than other metals. The raw materials for recycling of zinc include dusts generated in the production of steel and brass, sludge in the production process of non-ferrous metals, dross in the melting of zinc ingots or hot dip galvanizing, waste batteries, and metallic scrap. Among them, steelmaking dust and waste batteries are most actively recycled up to now. Most of the recycling process uses pyrometallurgical methods. Recently, however, much attention has been given to a combined process of pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.37-46
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• 2018

The Minamata Convention on Mercury entered into force on August 16, 2017. It requires Parties to the Convention to control and, where feasible, reduce mercury emissions from the listed sources. To implement the Convention, Japan amended the Air Pollution Control Law and added clauses that force operators to control their mercury emissions below emission limit values (ELVs). The ELVs have been established separately for new and existing sources, targeting the source categories listed in the Convention: coal-fired boilers, smelting and roasting processes used in the production of non-ferrous metals (lead, zinc, copper and industrial gold), waste incineration facilities and cement clinker production facilities. The factors used to establish the ELVs include the present state of mercury emissions from the targeted categories as well as the mercury content in fuels and materials, best available techniques (BATs) and best environmental practices (BEPs) to control and reduce mercury emissions and ELVs or equivalent standards to control mercury emissions in other countries. In this regard, extensive data on mercury emissions from flue gas and the mercury content of fuels and materials were collected and analyzed. The established ELVs range from $8{\mu}g/Nm^3$ for new coal-fired boilers to $400{\mu}g/Nm^3$ for existing secondary smelting processes used in the production of copper, lead and zinc. This paper illustrates the ELVs for the targeted source categories, explaining the rationales and approaches used to set the values. The amended Law is to be enforced on April 1, 2018. From future perspectives, checks of the material flow of mercury, following up on the state of compliance, review of the ELVs and of the measurement and monitoring methods have been noted as important issues.