Lancaster University has partnered with environmental firm ICT Reverse to extract precious metals from printed circuit boards (PCB) recovered from waste electrical and electronic equipment.

The company, based in Morecambe, has benefited from a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University’s School of Engineering.

KTPs aim to help businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills within the UK knowledge base. This project was funded by UKRI through Innovate UK which awarded £129,000 with further funding from ICT Reverse.

Over 50 million tonnes of electronic equipment are generated globally each year, with the PCB waste either recycled informally through open burning, creating toxic fumes, or transported to refineries for smelting or incineration where much of the valuable material is lost.

Bioleaching is a far less environmentally harmful technology, making use of bacteria to extract precious metals like copper and gold from metal ores in the PCBs, which can then be recycled commercially.

Dr Farid Aiouache from the School of Engineering said: “The process operates spent PCBs from various domestic appliances and uses an efficient bioreactor design to run the process at moderate conditions of acidity and temperature and promoted safety. The aim is to design a technology that is scalable and economically viable.”

Many of the precious metals or rare earth metals are at a higher concentration in PCBs than in the original ore, representing a huge source of potential value.

Craig Smith, Group Managing Director of ICT Reverse, said: “Many Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) have committed to stop using rare earth metals, Apple’s commitment to stop using cobalt by 2025 for example. So having a sustainable and financially viable way to reuse these rare metals and ores within our existing electronic devices creates a true circular economy, and we see bioleaching as the best way to achieve this goal”.

Following the successful completion of the KTP, a three year PhD studentship will take this further while ICT Reverse plans to retain the technology and invest in infrastructure, products and services to capitalise on the technology.