LCD-VAL aims to illustrate the potential indium value contained in LCDs via recovery techniques, therefore turning waste liquid crystal panel waste fractions into a resource for critical raw materials (CRMs). The objectives and targets are
? To unlock the volume of indium from waste LCDs & increase the range and yields of recovered raw materials
? To illustrate the automation potential of the process
? To push Ireland to the forefront in the area of raw materials processing technologies
? To result in higher economic viability and investment security of processing operations
LCDs contain a liquid crystal glass panel component. This liquid crystal glass panel is composed of two glass sheets with liquid crystals placed in between the sheets. Indium is present in the form of a coating on the internal surfaces of the glass panels of the LCD and is combined in an alloy composition of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). In order to achieve the objectives, the potential for indium recovery from LCD displays was investigated where pre-treatments were explored (to remove ITO) along with various hydrometallurgical techniques (to recover indium from the separated ITO). The pre-treatments considered for investigation including bulk grinding of the LCD panel glass with indium coating, surface grinding to remove ITO from LCD panel glass and a laser pre-treatment to evaporate off the ITO coating.
The output materials from the pre-treatments, indium containing powders in the case of bulk and surface ground techniques and indium on an absorption media in the case of the laser technique, then went through metallurgical testing to identify the parameters that would yield recovered indium with good quality and cost effectively.
Analysis of the initial indium concentrations on the LCD panels showed large variation from 38 to 800 mg/kg glass. The glass front general contains more indium then the glass back. The series of pre-treatments were investigated and from these the best preforming pre-treatments were considered to be the surface grinding technique and the laser ablation processes as both removed ITO directly with minimal contaminants being collected. The surface grind process yielded a powder that was predominantly ITO and this has an advantage of less introduction of contaminants to the acid bath compared to the bulk grinding technique at the hydrometallurgical step.
While the laser process has an advantage of the potential for a very high through process however, the ITO has to be captured on an absorption media which subsequently must be submerged into the acid bath and may act as a contaminant. However, the potential to deposit or capture the ITO on bath friendly media readily resolves this and offer high flexibility regarding processing options.
The potential to automate both laser and surface grinding techniques were considered in detail. Similar process set ups would be required by both. The advantage of automating these processes is that the polariser film of the panel does not require removal in order to access the ITO for these particular processes. This has a significant impact on the time and quality of the process compared to the other options available (as-is digestion and bulk grinding). Laser has a potential to achieve very high process throughputs with a maximum of approximately 240individual panels of 120 panel pairs per hour. The volume of indium collectable with one laser (up to 90g per hour) can be scaled with multiple lasers to scale the process for fully automated close loop indium recycling from LCDs. From this study, it is believed that the laser processing technique as strong potential regarding large scale indium recovery.

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O'Donoghue, L.   "LCDVAL Results and dataset". Associated datasets and digitial information objects connected to this resource are available at: Secure Archive For Environmental Research Data (SAFER) managed by Environmental Protection Agency Ireland https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/resource?id=4c86ccfa-61bc-11e9-bc42-005056ae0019 (Last Accessed: 2024-10-11)

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SAFER-Data Display URL	https://eparesearch.epa.ie/safer/iso19115/display?isoID=3181
Resource Keywords	LCD Recycling Indium Recovery Circular Economy
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Code	2015-RE-MS-4
EPA/ERTDI/STRIVE Project Theme	Environmental Technologies
Resource Availability:	Public-Open
Limitations on the use of this Resource	results and data are being used in publications currently being written.
Number of Attached Files (Publicly and Openly Available for Download):	1
Project Start Date	Monday 12th October 2015 (12-10-2015)
Earliest Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Monday 12th October 2015 (12-10-2015)
Most Recent Recorded Date within any attached datasets or digital objects	Wednesday 18th April 2018 (18-04-2018)
Published on SAFER	Thursday 18th April 2019 (18-04-2019)
Date of Last Edit	Thursday 18th April 2019 at 10:30:27 (18-04-2019)
Datasets or Files Updated On	Thursday 18th April 2019 at 10:30:27 (18-04-2019)

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