Critical analysis of legal and economic problems in terms of safety use of autonomous vehicles

The majority of society, including politicians, scientists and visionaries, see only the advantages of implementing autonomous vehicles into road traffic, forgetting about the possible dangers and risks associated with the functioning of such transport. The article presents most of the present and future possible problems and risks of cooperation between autonomous vehicles and the functioning of transport. The conduced legal and economic analysis indicates a number of problems with the implementation of autonomous vehicles, which may cause, apart from obvious positive solutions, also a high risk in terms of road safety and the need to adapt the current legal acts. We should strive for maximum material recovery from end-of-life vehicles, including electronics and electrical installations of modern EV/HEV, particularly “rich” in scarce and critical metals. Electric and electronic scrap is most often classified as hazardous waste in the group of industrial waste. This is mainly due to the content of compounds that are particularly harmful to human health and the environment and at the same time highly desirable.

Sustainable Development of Corrosion Inhibitors from Electronic Scrap: Synthesis and Electrochemical Performance

Due to its high content of rare earths, the use of permanent magnets can be a sustainable alternative for the synthesis of environmentally friendly corrosion inhibitors in order to replace the use of highly toxic inhibitors, as well as the use of rare earth salts of high purity and high cost. In this study, the recovery of rare earths from permanent magnet wastes and their synthesis to chloride salts were carried out. Rare earth chlorides were evaluated as corrosion inhibitors by electrochemical techniques on API X70 steel in a 3.5% NaCl solution. Both anodic and cathodic polarization curves were made, and measurements of both open-circuit potential, linear polarization resistance, and electrochemical impedance were made. Results show that the inhibitor synthesized is a mixture of Nd and Pr chloride. Its performance as a corrosion inhibitor is superior to that of high purity Nd chloride (analytical reagent). The results show that the use of electronic scrap is a sustainable source for the synthesis of green corrosion inhibitors with low carbon footprint.

Oxidation of Thiosulfate with Oxygen Using Copper (II) as a Catalyst

Thiosulfate effluents are generated in the photography and radiography industrial sectors, and in a plant in which thiosulfates are used to recover the gold and silver contained in ores. Similar effluents also containing thiosulfate are those generated from the petrochemical, pharmaceutical and pigment sectors. In the future, the amounts of these effluents may increase, particularly if the cyanides used in the extraction of gold and silver from ores are substituted by thiosulfates, or if the same happens to electronic scrap or in metallic coating processes. This paper reports a study of the oxidation of thiosulfate, with oxygen using copper (II) as a catalyst, at a pH between 4 and 5. The basic idea is to avoid the formation of tetrathionate and polythionate, transforming the thiosulfate into sulfate. The nature of the reaction and a kinetic study of thiosulfate transformation, by reaction with oxygen and Cu2+ at a ppm level, are determined and reported. The best conditions were obtained at 60 °C, pH 5, with an initial concentration of copper of 53 ppm and an oxygen pressure of 1 atm. Under these conditions, the thiosulfate concentration was reduced from 1 g·L−1 to less than 20 ppm in less than three hours.