Treatment of Spent LED Light Bulbs for Recycling of Its Components: A Combined Assessment in the Context of LCA and Cost-Benefit Analysis

Recently, the demand for LED light bulbs is rapidly increasing due to an increasing demand for energy saving lightning options. In this work, the elemental composition of LED light bulbs is first analyzed, and then a flowsheet for recovering LED chips and other valuable metals from spent LED light bulbs is put forward. The suggested flowsheet includes eddy current separation (ECS) and air tabling, in addition to several refining processes. The experimental results indicated that the eddy current separation and the air tabling are useful techniques for sorting components of LED bulbs, enabling the recycling of aluminium, plastics, and precious metals, such as gold and silver. Next, five different scenarios for treatment of spent LED light bulbs were considered and a combined life cycle assessment (LCA) and cost-benefit analysis was carried out to find out the most suitable alternative. The results of the combined assessment suggested that the recycling of mainly Al and plastics from spent LED bulbs is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative.