HID Lamp Recycling
Component Separation
Under a negative airflow, the outer globe of glass is removed from the base and
metal stem of the lamp which houses the inner arc tube. The inner arc tube is
made of quartz glass and contains mercury.
The non-mercury bearing parts are separated, sorted by material type, tested
for mercury contamination and then sent out for further recycling. The inner
arc tube which contains mercury is breached and placed into a retort for
additional processing.
Roast And Retort
The inner arc tubes are place into a retort oven where the glass is heated to a
high temperature which causes the mercury to evaporate off the glass. The
mercury is then cooled, collected and held for additional processing. The inner
arc tubes, which are now clean, are also cooled, sampled and sent out for
recycling.
The glass is sampled and analyzed for mercury and sent for recycling or
disposal, depending on th current market. The phosphor powder is further
separated for glass fines and collected in containers and shipped off-site for
retort. The ferrous portion of the lamps, the filaments, are removed by a
magnetic separator and sent for retort.
Triple Distillation
The crude grade mercury recovered from the thermal process is distilled three
times to remove impurities, turning the mercury into a product grade metal.