IRETA2

As part of the IRETA2 project, a process was developed for recycling tantalum capacitors from end-of-life printed circuit boards. The process begins with optical detection of the capacitors, followed by laser removal of the capacitors from both sides of the printed circuit boards within 90 ms.

Both detection and removal have been integrated into an automated system that takes an average of 2.9 seconds per capacitor. In addition, a refining process has been developed to separate the tantalum from the capacitor. This involves mechanical treatment, magnetic and density-based separation, refining electrolysis, and thermal oxidation to produce tantalum pentoxide.

The developed process achieved an efficiency of at least 73%. The economic evaluation shows that the process is cost-effective if the market price for tantalum increases by EUR 23/kg or the process time for optical detection and laser-based removal is reduced by 0.2 s. An environmental and life cycle assessment shows the ecological advantages of this recycling process compared to primary production.