Characterisation of Rare Earth Elements in Waste Printed Circuit Boards (WPCBs) and their bioleaching potential

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are part of everyday items such as cellular phones and computers, and they constitute a significant proportion of e-waste. PCBs contain hazardous components but also valuable and critical materials such as copper, gold, silver and rare earth elements. Rare earth elements (REE) are crucial to modern hardware and due to their increasing demand and high supply risk, they are now considered to be amongst the most critical elements in the world. In this research, WPCBs were supplied by local recycling companies after crushing/grinding process and metal analysis of the material was carried out. The concentration of the REE and their distributions in particle sizes is determined, and the potential of WPCBs for REE bioleaching is also discussed.