In his PhD thesis Wolfram Scharnhorst studies the environmental impacts arising from End-of-life treatment of outdated mobile phone network equipment. The transition from 2G (GSM) to 3G (UMTS) technique will lead to a distinct rise in outdated equipment of 2G network components which have to be dealt with. Today several options of End-of-Life treatment  exist ranging from disposal over several sophisticated recycling technologies to incineration and final disposal. In any case, emissions due to improper End-of-Life treatment and potential losses of valuable materials contained in the equipment can pose environmentally critical impacts.

So far the End-of-Life treatment phase of mobile phone network components has not been analysed sufficiently. The thesis is intended to fill that gap, thus promoting a more environmentally sound development of mobile phone systems.

Present Activity:

Incineration experiments

Presently incineration experiments are performed in co-operation with the Chemical Processes and Materials (CPM) Research Group at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI). Samples of Printed Wiring Boards (PWB) are incinerated in a laboratory scale quartz-tube reactor and the chemical elements in the residuals are determined. In parallel calculations using thermodynamic equilibrium models are performed. Incineration experiments with the so-called Thermo-Gravimetric Inductively Coupled Plasma (TG-ICP) spectrometer are performed in order to evaluate the experimental results obtained with the quartz tube reactor.
It is intended to widen the scope of research in the near future to the investigation of hydro-thermal treatment methods and to test these methods for electronic scrap.

LCA modelling

In the series of network modelling, presently the modelling of a UMTS network for Swiss conditions ongoing. Goal of the modelling is

• to update all existing data sets
• to add new data sets
• to complete a network with components complying with ETSI/3GPP standards

Involved Project Partner

Supervisor:

• Olivier Jolliet, EPFL

Independent expert:

• Lorenz Hilty, EMPA

Tutors:

• Hans-Jörg Althaus, EMPA
• Gerald Rebitzer, EPFL

Partners:

• Michael Guggisberg, Swisscom Mobile (Schweiz)
• Markus Stutz, Motorola (Deutschland)
• Christian Ludwig, PSI, Paul-Scherrer-Institut (Schweiz)

Project term: 2002 - 2005

   
Contact: Wolfram Scharnhorst

    
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