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CHEMICAL RECYCLING OF POLYVINYL CHLORIDE CONTAINING PLASTIC WASTE FOR LIGHT-EMITTING DIODES RECYCLING

  • Thomas Fehn - Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Institute Branch Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany
  • Alexander Hofmann - Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Institute Branch Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany
  • Burkhard Berninger - Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, Institute Branch Sulzbach-Rosenberg, Germany
  • Michael Peer - Department of Mechanical Engineering and Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Applied Sciences, Germany

DOI 10.31025/2611-4135/2026.19592

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Copyright: © 2025 CISA Publisher

Abstract

The recycling of critical metals using chemical recycling of polyvinyl chloride containing plastic waste is a promising way to solve two important problems in waste management. The first problem is the disposal of polyvinyl chloride. The second problem is the recovery of critical metals. This is being transferred to demonstration scale as part of the “CHM-Technology” project. Different polyvinyl chloride containing plastic wastes were pyrolyzed. This hydrochloric acid rich vapor is used in a second step to chlorinate indium in light-emitting diodes. Indium chloride has a lower boiling and vaporizes. This is cooled and, together with the decomposed volatile substances in the light-emitting diodes, produces a metal concentrate. The products are solid residues, metal concentrate and gas, which can ultimately be used for other purposes. For metal purification, the liquid metal concentrate is filtered, mixed with water, distilled and electrolyzed to obtain metallic indium qualitatively.

Keywords

Editorial History

  • Received: 12 Dec 2025
  • Revised: 20 Apr 2026
  • Accepted: 29 Apr 2026
  • Available online: 05 May 2026

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