Mitsubishi to open new e-scrap recycling facility in the Netherlands

By Carolina Curiel (ScrapMonster Author)

July 08, 2016 10:37:53 PM

EDGWARE (Scrap Monster): Japanese Mitsubishi Materials Corporation (MMC) in partnership with Hanwa Co. Ltd. has decided to set up a new electronics waste recycling centre at the Moerdijk port, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. The new facility will help to expand e-waste collection from the European region. The new joint venture will be known as MM Metal Recycling BV. MMC will have 90% equity stake in the new entity, and the balance 10% equity stake will be held by Japanese Hanwa. The construction of the facility has already started. The Moerdijk port facility is expected to become operational in the spring of 2017.

The proposed facility will have receiving area, full-fledged sample preparation and sampling facilities and a shipping yard. It is expected to boost e-scrap collection from across Europe-one of the largest sources of electronic scrap. The facility will inspect circuit boards and other waste electronic parts and ship the recyclable waste to Japanese smelting and refining facilities for further processing. The facility will be spread over nearly 30,000 square metres and is expected to create around 50 jobs. A total investment of nearly $40 million is expected.

The facility will employ MMC’s proprietary continuous copper smelting process, which is renowned for its low environmental impact. This will ensure compactness, low operational cost and maximum energy conservation. Moreover, the process will create a non-polluting system through effective prevention of sulfurous acid gas leaks.

Three launder-connected furnaces will be used: a circular smelting(S) furnace, an elliptical slag cleaning(CL) furnace, and a circular converting(C) furnace. The mixture of matte and slag formed in the S furnace flows continuously to the CL furnace, where the denser copper matte separates from the discard slag. The matte is then siphoned to the C furnace, to be continuously converted to blister copper and C-slag. The latter is water granulated, dried, and recycled to the S furnace, while blister copper is siphoned continuously from the C furnace to the anode furnaces.

According to the Dutch authorities, the location of the e-scrap processing facility in proximity to the Port of Moerdijk will enable smooth exports of recyclables to Japanese facilities. Ferdinand van den Oever, managing director at the Port of Moerdijk expressed the hope that the new facility would offer a big boost to the circular economy.

The establishment of the facility is part of MMC’s efforts to ensure supply of raw materials to its smelters so as to enable them to operate at full capacities. As part of the efforts, the company has been trying to boost electronic scrap collection from overseas countries. The country had recently established a separate new department within Mitsubishi Materials USA Corp. to focus on increasing the e-scrap collection volumes in the country.

Earlier in April this year, MMC had made an investment of nearly 5 billion yen at its Naoshima Smelter and Refinery in order to convert it into the world’s top-ranked e-scrap receiving and processing facility. It had increased the processing capacity by over 30,000 tons per year to approximately 140,000 tons per year.

MMC is a non-ferrous metals and cement producer and is a key player in the global recycling industry.