Recovering Germanium from waste optical fiber cables

The optical fiber in the applications of germanium consumer markets are accounted for more than 40%, and it continue to grow up year after year. With the rapid development of optical fiber communications industry, germanium tetrachloride which used as main raw materials of optical fiber and germanium dioxide which used as main raw materials of semiconductor materials, both of them has now become one of the most important uses of germanium. However, in recent years, global demand of germanium metal rises significantly, remaining reserves are less than 40 years, and it will be in short supply, so we must pay more attention to germanium metal resource recycling. Glass fiber added germanium metal content of is more than 3%, which annual waste fiber contains about 10 several tons of germanium. Currently, there is no one engaged in recovering germanium metal from optical fiber, while the recovery rate for recovering germanium is generally lower in other methods. In this study, we are engaged in developing an effective recycling processes of recovering germanium metal from waste fiber optic cable. Including that we use wire and cable stripper multifunction machine to remove the plastic outside the optical fiber cable effectively and rapidly, reductive roasting technology, solvent extraction technology, ion exchange, precipitation hydrolysis and germanium chloride distillation recovery techniques. So the recovery rate of germanium increases significantly to over 98%, and this recycling method is low impact on the environment. Germanium is the lack of resources in the world, and germanium is also the scattered precious metal. Therefore, waste optic fiber cable has recovered economic benefits and necessities.