# E-Waste disassembly system for component recovery and reuse

T. Caroff, Anne Margaux, Sebastien Brulais, Vincent Elhorga, Sébastien Boisseau

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T. Caroff, Anne Margaux, Sebastien Brulais, Vincent Elhorga, Sébastien Boisseau. E-Waste disassembly system for component recovery and reuse. symposium pour l'électronique & le numérique durables 2025, NANOELEC, Dec 2025, Grenoble, France. hal-05425562

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https://hal.science/hal-05425562v1

Submitted on 19 Dec 2025

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Automated E-Waste Disassembly System for Component Recovery and Reuse

Margaux Anne, Sébastien Brulais, Vincent Elhorga, Sébastien Boisseau, Tristan Caroff

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INSA
STRASBOURG

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École

d'ingénieurs

Télécom Physique

Strasbourg
# CEA LETI GRENOBLE - FRANCE

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# Sensor Autonomy & Sensor Integration Lab

... part of the System Department of the CEA-Leti

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# Outline

**1. Introduction**

Why E-Waste Matters

Brief Literature review

**2. The Pick and Remove System**

System overview and philosophy

Process Flow

**3. System Evaluation**

Experimental validation

Energy & Carbon Footprint

**4. Challenges and Next Steps**

**5. Conclusions**

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# 1 ■ Introduction

E-Waste : a pressing environmental challenge

Brief Literature review
# E-Waste : a pressing environmental challenge

* 82 Mt of e-waste projected by 2030

* Only 22 % of e-waste is properly recycled

=> Need a shift toward a circular electronics industry with recycling and re-valorisation

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## MAPPING OUT
E-WASTE

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* > 95 % of electronic components discarded before end-of-life [1]

=> Need a solution to recover valuable Electronic Components (EC) to keep them functional to preserve added value

[1] C. P. Baldé, et al. "Global E-waste Monitor 2024", ITU and UNITAR, 2024.
# E-Waste recovery : Brief Literature review

* Most of industrials and research teams are focusing on mass recycling of PCB and ECs to recover metals and Critical Raw Materials (CMR) [2]

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* ECs recovery can be combined with conventional recycling to keep their added value and bring additional economic, social and environmental benefits [3]

<footnote>[2] S. Gulliani, M. Volpe, A. Messineo, R. Volpe, "Recovery of metals and valuable chemicals from waste electric and electronic materials: a critical review of existing technologies". RSC Sustainability, 1(4), 2023, 590-627.</footnote>

<footnote>[3] Biswajit Debnath, Priyankar Roychowdhury, Rayan Kundu, "Electronic Components (EC) Reuse and Recycling – A New Approach towards WEEE Management", Procedia Environmental Sciences 35, 2016, p. 656-668</footnote>
# E-Waste recovery : which ECs ?

* Literature on EC recovery quite sparse [3]

* No guidelines to select valuable ECs

* Available data on common ECs from websites and datasheet

<table><thead><tr><td>Component</td><td>Composition</td><td>Environmental Impact</td><td>Economic Value</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Integrated Circuit</td><td>Au, Cu, REEs<fnref n="1" /></td><td>Energy-intensive, toxic</td><td>High, needs testing</td></tr><tr><td>Capacitor</td><td>Al, Zn, Ta, Nb</td><td>Ethical Ta extraction</td><td>High when scarce</td></tr><tr><td>Inductor</td><td>Cu, ferrite</td><td>Smelting, heat</td><td>Base-price of Cu</td></tr><tr><td>Transistor</td><td>Si, Ge, Ga, As</td><td>Toxic, energy</td><td>High resale for niche</td></tr><tr><td>Resistor</td><td>Cu, Sn, C</td><td>Low per unit</td><td>Low, bulk recovery</td></tr></tbody></table>

* **Integrated Circuits (ICs)**: adapted size for recovery / economic and environmental benefits

* **Tantalum Capacitances**: high environmental benefits + easy testability

* **SMD packages**: most of new high-value components are manufactured in this format

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<footnote n="1">¹REEs = “rare-earth elements”</footnote>
2. The Pick and Remove System

System overview and philosophy

Process Flow

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# System overview and philosophy

## Philosophy:

- Make recovery of electronic components accessible

- Democratize ECs recovery in academic Labs and FabLabs

- All designs & code on GitHub (CERN-OHL license)

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## Functional analysis:

- **Identification** : x, y position of selected valuable ECs (no vision required)

- **Automation** : Autonomous displacement of desoldering system

- **Desoldering** : Temperature profile compatible with EC brasing

- **Recovery** : Remove EC and depose to a tray

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# System overview

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1. Repurposed Creality Ender-3 - 3D printer chassis

2. PCB Holder with tray

3. 120 × 120 mm IR ceramic heater (150 °C pre-heat)

4. HAKKO FR-811 hot-air station (250 °C + suction pad)

5. Thermocouple for controlled ramp

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# Design of specific parts

<figure><img src="image_21.png" /><figcaption>Reflow Head connexion</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_22.png" /><figcaption>PCB and IR lamp holder</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_23.png" /><figcaption>HMI : python code for 3D printer driving (g-code), and temperature regulation</figcaption></figure>

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3. ■ System Evaluation

Experimental validation

Energy & Carbon Footprint

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# Experimental validation

## Experimental setup

<table><tr><td>Preheating IR</td><td>150 °C</td></tr><tr><td>Local heating of EC</td><td>250 °C</td></tr><tr><td>Heating ramp up</td><td>&lt; 3°/s</td></tr><tr><td>Dwell time</td><td>20 s</td></tr><tr><td>ECs</td><td>8 ICs and 4 cap.</td></tr><tr><td>No of PCB</td><td>5</td></tr></table>

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# Experimental Results

* During these tests, most of the ECs selected were successfully recovered without any damage

## Ta-caps (4 / PCB):

* 100 % recovery

* No dielectric damage

## ICs (8 / PCB):

* 75 – 91 % success

* All passed functional tests

**Cycle time:** 1 to 1.5 min / EC

**Energy per cycle:** 0.0345 kWh

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# Environmental impact of ECs recovery

* The environmental impact of EC recovery was evaluated by comparing the cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of new devices with the energy-based footprint of the recovery cycle

## Footprint per pick-and-remove cycle

* 1.1 g CO₂ (French grid) | 8.3 g CO₂ (EU mix)

## Manufacturing footprints [4][5]

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* ICs: 35 - 50 kg CO₂ / 300 mm wafer

* Ta-caps: 97 - 312 kg CO₂ / kg

## Recovery impact for IC and Ta-caps

* 0.4 – 52 % of manufacturing CO₂

<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">Device</th><th rowspan="2">Cradle to Gate [gCO<sub>2</sub>]</th><th colspan="2">Relative carbon footprint for recovery</th></tr><tr><th>FR Energy mix</th><th>EU Energy mix</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Large IC | SoC - 20 x 20 mm<sup>2</sup></td><td>280</td><td>0.4 %</td><td>3 %</td></tr><tr><td>Medium IC | ST MCU [6]</td><td>120</td><td>1 %</td><td>7 %</td></tr><tr><td>Small IC | MCU - 5 x 5 mm<sup>2</sup></td><td>17</td><td>7 %</td><td>52 %</td></tr><tr><td>Large Ta. Cap. | SMD - 250 mg</td><td>50</td><td>2 %</td><td>17 %</td></tr><tr><td>Medium Ta. Cap. | 1210 SMD - 20 mg</td><td>4</td><td>28 %</td><td>n.a.</td></tr></tbody></table>

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➤ EC recovery was evaluated and found to be a promising approach, both economically and environmentally.

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<footnote>[4] S. B. Boyd, "Life-Cycle Assessment of Semiconductors". Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, 2011</footnote>

<footnote>[5] Z. Elsayed, N. Elsayed, A. Abdelgawad, "Carbon Per Transistor (CPT): The Golden Formula for Green Computing Metrics", 2025</footnote>

<footnote>[6] Footprint of an Ultra Low Power MCU, Available online: https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about/sustainability/sustainable-technology/environmental-footprint-of-an-ultra-low-power-mcu.html (accessed on 17th September 2025)</footnote>
## 4. Challenges and Next Steps

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# Challenges and Next Steps

* The ECs recovery is a promising approach but it still faces several challenges to improve accessibility, efficiency and acceptability :

☐ Automated EC identification (vision + AI)

☐ Faster recovery (higher motor speeds, parallel arms)

☐ Standardised testing & certification for recovered ECs

☐ RUL prediction (physics-informed ML)

☐ Digital Product Passports (DPP) for traceability

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5. Conclusions

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# Conclusions

This work addresses the pressing issue of e-waste by developing an open-source system for automated recovery of high-value components from PCBs, enabling their reuse in a second life cycle.

* ✓ Accessible, low-cost system

* ✓ 75 – 100 % recovery, minimal thermal damage

* ✓ ≤ 10 - 20 % of manufacturing CO₂

* ✓ Open-source platform – invite labs, FabLabs, industry to adapt it

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leti

Many thanks for your attention

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