!! CYCLE 1: Treatment of personal electronics waste in NCR region!!!! The  design  project  allo2ed  to  cycle  1  focuses  on  how  to  tackle  the  growing  menace  of   e-­‐waste,   with   specific   emphasis   on   Delhi   and   restric>ng   the   solu>on   to   Laptops,  Desktops,   Tablets   and   Mobiles.   The   project   would   primarily   provide   an   economically  feasible  engineering  solu1on  to  reducing  the  propor>on  of  e-­‐waste  in  landfills,  recycle  and  reuse  e-­‐products   so  as   to  maximise   the  u>lity/  end  value  of   the  product  with  giving  due  regard  to  environmental  concerns.    !   Our   team   (of   4   subgroups)   has   iden1fied   4   broad   categories,   on   which   to  channelize/  base  our  respec>ve  efforts  upon,  one  being  the  es1ma1on  of  e-­‐waste  and  the  other  3  being  the  broad  components  into  which  an  electronic  gadget  can  be  broken  down  into,  namely    !1.  (Subgroup:  1):  Electrical  components  which  generally  comprises  of  the  mother  boards,  PCBs  etc.        2.   (Subgroup:  2):  Plas1cs  which  go   into   the  manufacturing  of   the  body.   (like  ABS,  nylon,  etc.  which  are  injec>on  moulded  to  get  desired  shape.)  4.   (Subgroup:   4):   Screen   of   the   gadget   which   comprises   of   a   number   of   metals   (Iron,  Copper,  Indium  etc.),  plas>cs  (specific  to  screens),  glasses,  LCDs,  CRTs  etc.    !       Subgroup  3:   This   subgroup  would  deal  with   the  Es1ma1on  of   the  e-­‐waste   stream  which  you  revolve  around  crea>on  of  a  regression  model  for  the  same.  This  would  include  the  appraisal  of  the  present  levels  of  waste  along  with  the  future  trends,  using  Mul1variate  Input  Output   (MIO)  Analysis.  We  have   talked   to   various   registered   e-­‐waste   operators   in  Delhi/NCR   (example:   Earth   Science   Recycle   (P)   Ltd.,   TIC   Group   India   (P)   Ltd.,     AOero  Recycling  (P)  Ltd,  Greenspace)    and  they  have  agreed  to  help  us  with  the  es>ma>on  part  to  some  extent.    We  plan  to  carry  out  the  analysis  on  two  fronts:  one  being  the  approximate  numbers   of   laptops,   computers,   mobiles   etc   recycled,   reused,   landfilled,   shelved   on   an  yearly   basis   and   the   second   being   the   amount   of   plas>cs,   metals   and   other   waste  components.  AXer  this,  we  can  use  MIO  Analysis  based  on  Sales-­‐Stock-­‐Lifespan  model    to  simulate  the  amounts  of  e-­‐waste  at  a  certain  point  of  >me  in  future.    !!

Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Delhi!!CHL471: Process Equipment Design & Economics

The  ac>on  plan  developed  to  tackle  the  problem  is  as  follows:  !PHASE  1:    !The   above   three   broad   categories   (including   es>ma>on)   have   been   allocated   to   3   Sub-­‐groups,  the  members  of  which  further  look,  in  sub  -­‐groups  of  2,  into:  !1.   The   current   and   past   technologies  which   have   been   or   are   being   used   to   recycle   or  reuse  that  par>cular  component  with  specific  emphasis  on  the  feasibility  (economically)  of  all  the  technologies.  (example:  selec>ve  dissolu>on  of  commingled  plas>cs  aXer  shredding,  washing  and  drying.)  !2.   The   poten1al   technologies  which   are   under   scru>ny   for   the   past   few   years   or  which  have   the  poten>al  but  have  not  yet  been   implemented  on  a   large   scale.  This  would  also  include   a   feasibility/economic   analysis.   (example:   High-­‐end   recycled   plas>cs   can   be  combined   with   virgin   resins   and   used   in   manufacturing   new   products.   But   it   is   s>ll   a  challenge  to  produce  as  pure  and  clear  flake  product(used  during  the  process)  as  possible.)    !3.   Dismantling   technology,   environmental   problems   (in   general)   and   change   in  composi1on  of  waste  stream  with  >me  (in   tandem  with  Group  dealing  with  es>ma>on),  pertaining   to   the   components   in   the   broad   categorisa>on   (Example:   since   the   advent   of  LCDs,   CRTs   (in   2007   sales   of   LCDs   television   surpassed   that   of   CRT   based)   are   been  discarded  at  an  exponen>al  rate,  hence  domina>ng  in  waste  stream).    !   The  above  work  plan  has  been  wrought  up  to  essen>ally   iden>fy   (group  wise)   the  key  technology/processes  being  incorporated  in  both  formal  and  informal  sectors  to  target  the  specific  aforemen>oned  components,  select  the  best  process  among  them  (bearing  in  mind  the  flexibility  required  to  address  the  changes   in  the  composi1on  of   future  waste  stream)  and  then  integrate  all  the  individual  processes  together  to  obtain  an  economically  feasible  process  plant.  !   The  work  plan  would  remain  effec>ve  un>l  process  iden>fica>on,  op>miza>on  and  data  from  es>ma>on  has  been  derived,  aXer  which  tasks  would  be  allo2ed  afresh  to  the  groups  based  on   the  final   process  design   structure  we   zero   in   upon  as   the  best   bet   and  work  upon  the  process  flow  shee>ng.  !PS: This report covers the work distribution and action plan till the mid-term evaluation since the subsequent endeavors would depend on outcome of Phase 1.!!!!“The best thing about the above design is that it would enable us to work in a company like environment where each group’s or rather individual’s work would be dependent on that of the others. We succeed as a team and we fail as a team.”