Nowadays, over 300 tons of Au are used in electronic equipment each year with other precious and strategic metals such as Ag, Pt, Pd, Cu, Nb, Ta, etc.. After the use-phase, the electronic devices become electronic was...Nowadays, over 300 tons of Au are used in electronic equipment each year with other precious and strategic metals such as Ag, Pt, Pd, Cu, Nb, Ta, etc.. After the use-phase, the electronic devices become electronic waste （e-waste）; consequently it is important to consider e-waste as a secondary supply for the recovery of these metals. This paper presents the recovery ofAu, Ag, Cu and Nb from PCBs （printed circuit boards） of discarded computers using leaching column technique. The PCBs were crushed with a hammer mill until reaching a particle size between 3.33 mm to 0.43 mm, Then, it was leached with a sodium cyanide solution in a glass column using the following conditions： sodium cyanide concentration 4 g/L, flux 20 L/d kg PCBs day, pH between 10.5 to 11 and leaching time 15 days. Every day, after leaching, the pregnant solutions passed through a column with activated carbon to complete the closed loop system. The following recoveries were obtained： Au 46.6%, Ag 51.3%, Nb 47.2% and Cu 62.3%. A preliminary technical-economic study shows the feasibility to create a small-scale PCBs recycling plant. The initial investment is on the order of USS155,639, considering the recovered metals from the loaded carbon. The internal rate of return for a 10 years period IRR （internal rate of return） and NPV （net present value） estimated are 27% and US$105,926 respectively.展开更多
Many interacting biomolecular components in cells form different positive or negative feedback loops. When biological signals transduce through cascades consisting of various loops they will be affected or even distor...Many interacting biomolecular components in cells form different positive or negative feedback loops. When biological signals transduce through cascades consisting of various loops they will be affected or even distorted. Especially, how to process various signals buried in various intrinsic and extrinsic noises is an important issue. This paper analyzes how the response time influences noise filtering ability and how to enhance the ability by coupling different feedback loops. A parameter to measure the response time of the signal transduction, i.e., τ0.9, and its relationship between the response time and noise filtering will be discussed. The authors show clearly that the longer the response time is, the better the ability to filter noises will be. Therefore, to enhance the ability to filter noises, the authors can prolong the response time by coupling different positive or negative feedback loops. The results provide a possible approach to enhance the ability to filter noises in larger biomolecular networks.展开更多
文摘Nowadays, over 300 tons of Au are used in electronic equipment each year with other precious and strategic metals such as Ag, Pt, Pd, Cu, Nb, Ta, etc.. After the use-phase, the electronic devices become electronic waste （e-waste）; consequently it is important to consider e-waste as a secondary supply for the recovery of these metals. This paper presents the recovery ofAu, Ag, Cu and Nb from PCBs （printed circuit boards） of discarded computers using leaching column technique. The PCBs were crushed with a hammer mill until reaching a particle size between 3.33 mm to 0.43 mm, Then, it was leached with a sodium cyanide solution in a glass column using the following conditions： sodium cyanide concentration 4 g/L, flux 20 L/d kg PCBs day, pH between 10.5 to 11 and leaching time 15 days. Every day, after leaching, the pregnant solutions passed through a column with activated carbon to complete the closed loop system. The following recoveries were obtained： Au 46.6%, Ag 51.3%, Nb 47.2% and Cu 62.3%. A preliminary technical-economic study shows the feasibility to create a small-scale PCBs recycling plant. The initial investment is on the order of USS155,639, considering the recovered metals from the loaded carbon. The internal rate of return for a 10 years period IRR （internal rate of return） and NPV （net present value） estimated are 27% and US$105,926 respectively.
基金This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 10832006, Youth Research under Grant No. 10701052, and Shanghai Pujiang Program.
文摘Many interacting biomolecular components in cells form different positive or negative feedback loops. When biological signals transduce through cascades consisting of various loops they will be affected or even distorted. Especially, how to process various signals buried in various intrinsic and extrinsic noises is an important issue. This paper analyzes how the response time influences noise filtering ability and how to enhance the ability by coupling different feedback loops. A parameter to measure the response time of the signal transduction, i.e., τ0.9, and its relationship between the response time and noise filtering will be discussed. The authors show clearly that the longer the response time is, the better the ability to filter noises will be. Therefore, to enhance the ability to filter noises, the authors can prolong the response time by coupling different positive or negative feedback loops. The results provide a possible approach to enhance the ability to filter noises in larger biomolecular networks.
