The purpose of this study was to understand the potential emissions of halogenated dioxins or furans and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from burning circuit board laminates. The methods of this study mimic two types of fire events: open burns and electronic waste (e-waste) incineration, both of which are used for precious metal recovery. While difficult to model these two complex fire scenarios exactly, the University of Dayton Research Institute (UDRI) utilized a cone calorimeter, a fire safety engineering instrument capable of simulating these scenarios and measuring combustion efficiency. The results of this study show that when circuit board laminates are burned, even at high heat flux that represents an incinerator, various pollutants are released. Further, flame retarded materials release more PAHs and other emission pollutants when burning compared to materials that are not flame retarded, but this is expected and indicates that the flame retardants are working as designed. Specifically, the retardation of flame and combustion will result in more incomplete combustion products.  This study also confirmed that brominated dioxins and furans are formed during circuit board combustion events when brominated FRs are present in the laminate. The addition of circuit board components will increase PAH total releases regardless of chemistry (halogen, non-halogen) in the component powders because total mass of plastic is increased. Brominated flame retardant samples produced more PAHs than non-halogenated flame retardant systems.

Emissions from thermal recycling/combustion of halogenated and non-halogenated circuit boards

247th National Meeting (2014)

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