Recycling is central to our closed-loop business model. Umicore offers our customers a one-stop solution for all their germanium recycling needs. We have developed advanced processes that can recover germanium from a wide range of production scraps and end-of-life products, including fiber optics, solar cells, LEDs and infrared optics.
Whether you want to sell germanium materials or have them recycled into end-products, Umicore guarantees quick turnaround.
Our recycling services include both pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes to recycle a variety of solids, cakes, and slurries. We can also recover germanium from complex streams that contain silicon, fluorine and many different metals and can treat several thousand tonnes annually.
Concentration thresholds for recycling streams are as low as 0.5% for solids and 0.5 g/L for solutions. Economic feasibility, however, depends on germanium market notations.