The Physical Separation and Recovery of Metals from Waste, Volume One

Book excerpt: This book deals with the physical processes used for the separation of secondary metals from waste sources. The introduction briefly considers the history of the secondary metals industries, defines the terms used in materials recycling and discusses the potential for resource recovery and improved processing. A comprehensive survey is given of the unit operations employed for metals recovery and reclamation, and this is followed by detailed descriptions of processes used to treat fragmentized metal wastes and granulated metal wastes. The final chapter reviews the processing of urban wastes for metals recovery, and gives details of modern plants and practices. The volume aims to bring together technical information on metals recovery from a wide range of sources in order to give a unified review of an important engineering and environmental topic.