Sustainable management of electronic waste is critical to achieving a circular-economy and minimizing environment and public health risks. The objective of this study was to investigate the use of pyrolysis as a possible technique to recover valuable materials and energy from different components of e-waste as an alternative approach for limiting their disposal to landfills. The study includes investigating the potential impact of thermal processing of e-waste.Thermogravimetric (TG) analysis and differential thermogravimetric analysis (DTG) of e-waste components were used to better understand the mass loss characteristics of the pyrolysis process up to 700 oC. The changes in e-waste chemical components during pyrolysis were considered using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques. The energy recovery from pyrolysis was made in a horizontal tube furnace under anoxic and isothermal condition of selected temperatures of 300, 400 and 500 oC. Critical and valuable metals were recovered from electronic components. Pyrolysis produced liquid and gas mixtures organic compounds that can be used as fuels, but the process also emitted particulate matter and semi-volatile organic products, and the remaining ash contained leachable pollutants. Furthermore, toxicity leaching characteristic profile of e-waste and partly oxidized products were conducted to measure the levels of pollutants leached before and after pyrolysis at selected temperatures. The results of this study contribute to the development of alternative approaches to practical recycling that could especially help reduce plastic pollution and recover materials of value from e-waste. Additionally, this information may be used to assess the risk of exposure of workers to emissions semi-formal recycling centers.

This dataset is associated with the following publication: Sahle-Demessie, E., B. Mezgebe, J. Dietrich, Y. Shan, S. Harmon, and C.C. Lee. Material recovery from electronic waste using pyrolysis: Emissions measurements and risk assessment. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering. Elsevier B.V., Amsterdam, NETHERLANDS, 9(1): 104943, (2021).