Bench scale microbial catalysed leaching of mobile phone PCBs with an increasing pulp density

Abstract The study reports the effect of increasing pulp density on the bio-catalyzed leaching of metals from waste mobile phone printed circuit boards. Mixed microbial consortia of iron and sulfur-oxidizing microorganisms were used for batch bioleaching at varying pulp density of 7%, 10% and 15% (w/v). The copper content in the feed material was 26.3% (w/w) and the prime focus was to recover maximum copper along with other minor metals, such as zinc, aluminum, and nickel. All the bioleaching experiments resulted with 98–99% of copper recovery together with reasonable extraction Zn, Al, and Ni. The optimum copper recovery from bioleaching experiments demonstrates the possibility of scaling up with high pulp density, which could be economical as well as eco-friendly.