Mercury recovery from cold cathode fluorescent lamps using thermal desorption technology

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 degrees C to 850 degrees C, which is much higher than from cinnabar at 300 degrees C to 380 degrees C and that of pure mercury, high pressure mercury lamps, and fluorescent tubes containing mercury/fluorescent-powder at 50 degrees C to 250 degrees 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 degrees C to 200 degrees C. Thus, complete separation of the cracked CCFLs is necessary to effectively recover phosphor and mercury at low financial and energy cost.