Development of inherent safety assessment index for e-waste recycling process: flammability parameter

• Published in: Materials Research Proceedings
• Main Author: Syaza Izyanni A.; Engku Syifa Hayani E.S.; Mardhati Z.A.; Muhammad Firdaus H.
• Format: Conference paper
• Language: English
• Published: Association of American Publishers 2023
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85161720601&doi=10.21741%2f9781644902516-42&partnerID=40&md5=d6bcc3b3ed1ace0a014292c0f2e23f0e

Nowadays, the usage of electronic devices such as computers and mobile phones are crucial in the daily life especially with the growing internet usage globally. The worldwide e-waste production is anticipated to be around 20 to 25 million tonnes per year and is expected to rise through the decade. Increasing amount of e-waste will become a major concern due to its harmful impact to the environment as well as human health. Investigations on the impact of e-waste recycling process in terms of flammability parameter is currently lacking. The objective of this work is to develop an inherent safety assessment index focusing on the flammability parameters assessment of e-waste recycling process. The inherent safety assessment index developed focused on the flammability value of every chemical used in e-waste recycling process particularly the hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy processes. Logistic function was used in developing the scores for flammability evaluation of e-waste processes. In this scoring index, higher flammability score indicates higher hazard. A simple case study was conducted to compare the flammability level of two e-waste recycling process, namely Process A and Process B. Process B has higher Total Flammability Score than Process A indicating it as more hazardous due to the existence of hydrochloric acid and cyanide in the process than Process A with only hydrochloric acid as its flammable chemical in terms of flammability level. This indicates that the inherent safety assessment index produced can be used to conduct preliminary evaluation on the flammability level of chemicals involved in an e-waste recycling process particularly the hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy processes. However, to achieve a more comprehensive inherent safety assessment, this index needs to be equipped with several others inherent safety assessment parameters for example explosiveness and toxicity. © 2023, Association of American Publishers. All rights reserved.