Abstract

CAMARGO-NEGRETE, Gustavo Enrique; DIAZ, César  and  ESPINOZA-GOMEZ, Heriberto. Recovery of glass flat screen television by corrosive washing. Rev. Int. Contam. Ambient [online]. 2011, vol.27, n.3, pp.191-198. ISSN 0188-4999.

Waste glass from plasma display panel, PDP, is usually disposed of in a landfill, without recycling. The recovery of the PDP glass was investigated to contribute to the sustainable development use of this waste, once the coatings were removed from the glass in order to minimize the generation of hazardous waste. The process was designed on a laboratory level for the recovery of PDP waste glass. The chemical procedure of recovering residual glass was investigated to eliminate the coatings from the glass using corrosive wet scrubbing. A previous study was performed about the percent of removal of the coatings by treatment with five acids and two bases. It was determined that the aqua regia (HNO₃: HCl, 1:3) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) are the best removal agents of the coatings in combination with ultrasonic treatment. The parameters that were evaluated to determine the optimum condition of removal are the concentration of the acid and the base, the temperature, the volume of the dissolution and the time of the wash. Two washing stages were established: first the treatment with aqua regia, and second the treatment with sodium hydroxide; the used procedure removed nine of twelve layers, which corresponds to 97% of the coatings weight. The recovered glass has sufficient quality to be used in other production process. The processes of removal, the treatment of 261 samples of PDP glass and the results, are discussed in the following article.

Keywords : glass; PDP; recovery; recycling; hazardous waste; sustainability.