International Journal of Environmental Science and Development

Abstract—Recovery of waste metals of aircrafts is an important step during recycling process which is harder and more harmful by the presence of different toxic components. This study investigated the effects of different electrolyte (HCl, NaOH, HNO₃, H₂SO₄, H₃PO₄, NH₄OH) on the separation and recovery of waste metals layers using the electrochemical treatment with a constant voltage 3v.In addition, the influence of electrolyte concentrations(10, 5, 3, 1) mol/l were studied after choosing the most effective electrolyte, the separation processes has been compared with and without electrochemical treatment. In order to analyze the micro structural of aircraft samples Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) equipped with Eds and opto-digital microscopy were used. The SEM images result shows that the aircraft waste contains seven layers, with different compounds. The major elements are Aluminum, chromium and titanium. It is observed hydrochloric acid has the best result on complete solving of the middle layer contains highest Aluminum element, so its solution release the other layers. The higher hydrochloric acid concentration and electrochemical process makes the separation of layers 14 times faster. The procedure was successfully separated and recovered three layers (aluminum layer chromium layer and titanium layer).The separation process can recover approximately 466 kg aluminum, 37 kg chromium and 138 kg titanium from 1 ton of waste metal.

Index Terms—Aircraft recycling waste metals, electrochemical treatment and hydrochloric acid, metal recovery.

The authors are with the Superior School of Technology Québec University, Montreal, Canada (e-mail: dihia.benyahia.1@ens.etsmtl.ca, Robert.hausler@etsmtl.ca).

[PDF]

Cite: Dihia Benyahia and Robert Hausler, "Study of Recovering and Separating the Waste Metal Layers Aircraft by Electrochemical Treatment," International Journal of Environmental Science and Development vol. 7, no. 9, pp. 668-671, 2016.