Glass waste dumps from crystal glass production is an health issue due to the occurrence of antimony, arsenic, cadmium and lead in crystal glass. Recovery of those elements could both decrease pollution and recycle metals in the circular economy. Pyrometallurgy is a potential recovery method, yet limited by high energy consumption. Here we tested a lower-energy alternative in which glass is mechanically activated in a ball mill and leached with nitric acid. Results show that mechanical activation destabilised the glass structure and resulted in 78% lead extraction during leaching at 95 °C. Temperature had the most significant effect on extraction, whereas acid concentration, from 0.5 to 3 M, and leaching time, from 0.5 to 12 h, had insignificant effects. In each experiment, 75% of the final extracted amount was achieved within 30 min. The study demonstrates potential for lead extraction from glass waste at lower acid concentration, shorter leaching time and lower temperature, of 95 °C, than traditional pyrometallurgical extraction, typically operating at 1100 °C.

由于晶体玻璃中锑，砷，镉和铅的存在，来自晶体玻璃生产的玻璃废料堆是一个健康问题。这些元素的回收既可以减少污染，又可以在循环经济中回收金属。火法冶金是一种潜在的回收方法，但受到高能耗的限制。在这里，我们测试了一种低能替代品，其中玻璃在球磨机中被机械活化，并用硝酸浸出。结果表明，在95°C的浸出过程中，机械活化破坏了玻璃结构的稳定性，并导致78％的铅提取。温度对提取的影响最大，而酸浓度（0.5至3 M）和浸出时间（0.5至12 h）影响不大。在每个实验中，在30分钟内达到了最终提取量的75％。