Recovery of Strategic Metals from Tungsten Carbide-Cobalt Bonded Waste by Electrochemical Processing

Scraped or end-of-life WC-Co bonded makes it an attractive resource. The conventional technologies to recover these metals entail energy-intensive pre-treatment steps, followed by their dissolution in a high volume of concentrated acids/alkali reagents. Recently, much attention has been given to the development of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly routes based on WC-Co direct electrochemical dissolution as anodes. However, the metals have a retarded dissolution, in NaOH alkali media, due to the formation of passive oxide layers, in the acidic electrolytes, and of hydroxides, on the anodic surface. The present study investigated WC and Co dissolution fundamentals in aqueous NH3, in order to develop a greener process, by the suitable addition of (NH4)2CO3, (NH4)2SO4 and NH4Cl Preliminary PDP studies revealed the necessary concentration of NH3 and additives, and their effect on the metals passivation tendency, for obtaining the best anodic dissolution parameters. The electrodissolution experiments in a specially designed cell achieved the maximum values, by adjusting those parameters. The highest dissolution of W and Co occurred under optimum conditions (10 V, 150 g/L NH3 and 15% w/v NH4Cl). Co was deposited at the cathode, while H8N2O4W remained in the electrolyte and was recovered as H2WO4 or YTO. Topographical analysis of the polarized surface by AFM has confirmed the pitting corrosion mechanism responsible for W and Co dissolution. A process flow chart for the newly developed single-step direct recycling methods of WC scraps has also been proposed. This process has produced pure saleable WO3 powder and Co.