WtE Bottom Ash

Bottom ash is often richer in copper than most copper ore deposits. This copper is partly recovered but the majority ends up together with the bottom ash as a building material under highways or in a landfill. Particle size distribution of bottom ash typically varies between 0 to 40 mm. The ECR-process is able to treat the integral fraction (0-40 mm), but finer bottom ash fractions are also possible (e.g. <12 mm, representing ~70% of the bottom ash). Recovery rates of conventional mechanical separation techniques are becoming more inefficient on finer particle sizes, making these them more interesting to process in the ECR-process.

Elemetal recovers grade A cathodic copper out of bottom ash, which can directly be sold for the LME rate. Disadvantage of conventional mechanical separation techniques is the production of a lower grade mix of non-ferrous metals which will need further refining.