Leaching of Waste Pharmaceutical Blister Package Aluminium in Sulphuric Acid Media
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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
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Date
2023-06
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Language
en
Pages
19
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Metals, Volume 13, issue 6
Abstract
In this study, the leaching behaviour of aluminium from waste pharmaceutical blister packages (WPBs) is investigated in sulphuric acid media to build future strategies for aluminium recycling from this non-recycled waste fraction. The results suggest that in hydrometallurgical recycling, passivation of aluminium during leaching can be mitigated in dilute sulphuric acid solutions (0.25 M), at high temperatures (60–80 °C) and specifically with H2O2 addition. With this system, 100% extraction was achieved within five hours under optimized conditions (H2SO4 = 0.25 M, T = 80 °C, H2O2 = 1.25 vol.%). The leaching mechanism is suggested to be based on electrochemical dissolution of metallic aluminium oxidized by H+ or H2O2, followed by fast passivation by Al2O3 and consequent chemical dissolution of Al2O3 at slower kinetics. The calculated activation energy (~69 kJ/mol) suggests that the leaching reaction is controlled by the chemical or electrochemical reaction step rather than diffusion. By WPB leaching, an aluminium sulphate solution could be obtained, suitable for further aluminium sulphate crystallization. This may provide a potential route for the valorisation of aluminium from a currently overlooked waste fraction of pharmaceutical blister packages.Description
Funding Information: This research was funded by the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland under the SUDDEN Project (Decision No. 320219). The authors gratefully acknowledge Pharmac Finland Oy for providing the support and WPBs investigated in this study. This work also made use of Raw-MatTERS Finland Infrastructure (RAMI) funded by the Academy of Finland. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.
Keywords
circular economy, dissolution, low-acid separation, recycling
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Citation
Shukla, S, Chernyaev, A, Halli, P, Aromaa, J & Lundström, M 2023, ' Leaching of Waste Pharmaceutical Blister Package Aluminium in Sulphuric Acid Media ', Metals, vol. 13, no. 6, 1118 . https://doi.org/10.3390/met13061118