#Industry ·2026-02-14
When smartphones are discarded after an average of 18 months and computers become "electronic antiques" in just three years, printed circuit boards pose the toughest challenge in the 55 million tons of electronic waste generated globally each year. They are highly valuable—a ton of waste boards contains more gold than a gold mine—but also extremely toxic, with lead, cadmium, and brominated flame retardants easily leaching into soil and groundwater. How can we both recover these "urban mines" and protect our "green mountains and clear waters"? Chinese engineers have developed a fully independently-owned "water-based separation equipment for recycling waste printed circuit boards". This system operates like a calm surgeon, first "anesthetizing" and then "dissecting". Waste boards are fed into a sealed crushing chamber, where nitrogen protection instantly crushes them into millimeter-sized particles, avoiding the dioxin risks of traditional incineration. They then enter the core of the process—a multi-stage countercurrent hydrocyclone. Leveraging the subtle differences in hydrophilicity between metals and non-metals, the water flow containing only food-grade surfactants enables copper, tin, and gold particles to rise against the current like carp leaping over the dragon gate, while resin powders sink to the bottom, achieving over 95% high-precision separation. The entire process operates in a closed loop, consuming less than 0.3 tons of water per ton of waste boards, far below the industry average of 1.2 tons, truly "draining every drop of wastewater to the last drop". At the national demonstration base in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, I witnessed the quiet yet busy operation of this production line: at the entrance, there's a colorful "hodgepodge" of waste boards; at the exit, there's shining copper metal powder on one side and pristine white resin particles on the other. After low-temperature smelting, the metal powder achieves 99.9% copper purity and can be directly used in new energy cables. The resin powder is blended with basalt fiber to create high-strength manhole covers and logistics pallets, capable of supporting two tons at half the cost of steel. More surprisingly, rare precious metals in the circuit boards are concentrated into "metal mud", from which 200 grams of gold and 1 kilogram of silver can be extracted per ton, worth over 300,000 yuan, truly turning "waste" into "hard currency". However, technological breakthroughs are just the first step. To help the equipment transition from the laboratory to industry, the R&D team once carried 50-kilogram samples across the country. When faced with doubts about whether "water-based separation would cause secondary pollution", they placed fish tanks in the circulating water pools, keeping goldfish and lotus plants alive for three months, only to see the fish swimming freely and the lotus flowers blooming in pairs, reassuring local governments. Today, the equipment has been exported to South Korea, India, and South Africa, helping Belt and Road partners establish localized recycling factories, reducing carbon emissions by about 120,000 tons annually, equivalent to planting 6.5 million trees. Standing in front of the huge transparent factory, I watched the waste boards slowly rise on the conveyor belt, like a sleeping dragon being awakened. Engineers said that every waste board was once a crystallization of human wisdom and should not be buried or incinerated, but should gain a second life in a new cycle. The water-based separation equipment uses the softness of technology to combat the hardness of pollution, allowing metals and resins to "return to their rightful places" in the water flow, and turning "reduction, harmlessness, and resourcefulness" from a slogan into a calculable, profitable, and sustainable future. Perhaps, true civilization lies not in how many chips we produce, but in whether we can "rejuvenate" them at lower cost when they become obsolete. As the water-based separation equipment illuminates green lights in more and more countries, it's not just a technological victory, but also a gentle apology and firm commitment to humanity—letting every gram of metal shine again in the cycle, and every piece of waste board become a footnote to green China.
2026-02-14
2026-02-14
2026-02-14
2026-02-14
2026-02-14
2026-02-14
No. 15 Industrial Avenue, Industrial Park, Shicheng County, Jiangxi Province
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