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Abstract

Cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) are globally used components of high technology products. A large amount of mercury in waste CCFLs is being recovered by thermal desorption technology in Taiwan. However, the complexity of the samples affects the thermal desorption efficiency and increases costs. This study identifies the mercury release behaviour of amalgam, phosphor and mercury-containing components as well as waste CCFLs by bench scale thermal desorption test. The results show that the mercury was released from amalgam and mercury/fluorescent powder from a real treatment plant at temperatures between 550°C to 850°C, which is much higher than from cinnabar at 300°C to 380°C and that of pure mercury, high pressure mercury lamps, and fluorescent tubes containing mercury/fluorescent-powder at 50°C to 250°C. In addition, the experiment also showed the mercury release peak of the mercury/fluorescent powders from a real treatment plant occurs at much higher temperatures than that of commercial phosphor at 50°C to 200°C. Thus, complete separation of the cracked CCFLs is necessary to effectively recover phosphor and mercury at low financial and energy cost.

Keywords

cold cathode fluorescent lamps CCFL mercury thermal desorption recovery

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Mercury recovery from cold cathode fluorescent lamps using thermal desorption technology

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