Good News: Study Shows Vaporizing E-Waste Makes it Easy to Recover Precious Metals at 13-Times Lower Costs | A Story Worth Sharing

Good News: Study Shows Vaporizing E-Waste Makes it Easy to Recover Precious Metals at 13-Times Lower Costs | A Story Worth Sharing

Why this story matters: This piece offers a constructive counterpoint to the constant stream of negative news. Quick summary: This story highlights recent developments related to electricity, showing how constructive action can lead to meaningful results. – credit Alexandre Debiève By instantaneously heating electronics to 3,000°C via an electrical current, scientists have found a way to extract decent grades of precious metals without creating hazardous waste. According to their analysis, relying on e-waste for a precious metals supply could be 13-times cheaper than mining them from the ground. However, previous methods have involved throwing this or that broken gizmo into a furnace powered by copious amounts of energy while also releasing toxic substances into air. By contrast, “flash joule heating,” a way of using electrical currents to vaporizing the valuable metals from the materials that hold electronics together is between 80 and 500-times more energy efficient. Would you like to rea…