Inspiration
Inspiration & About the Project
Inspired by over $62 MMT of global e-waste discarded annually and the environmental toll of rare-earth mining, we built UrbanMine AI—an interdisciplinary platform bridging optical AI vision with green bio-hydrometallurgy to recover neodymium Nd, dysprosium Dy, copper, and battery metals.
What it does
How we built it
We paired edge-AI computer vision YOLOv8 with multi-spectral sensors for automated component separation with organic fungal bio-acids for low-temperature metal leaching. To isolate chemically identical rare earths, we engineered a continuous-flow microfluidic hydrogel system:
Challenges we ran into
Our toughest hurdle was overcoming slow microbial leaching kinetics without using corrosive $H_2SO_4$. By applying ultrasonic wave agitation within micro-reactors, we accelerated metal dissolution from 48 hours down to just 4 hours.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
What we learned
We discovered that $1\text{ ton}$ of urban circuit boards contains $10\times \text{ to } 50\times$ higher metal concentration than mined ore. Blending AI robotics with bio-chemistry proved that zero-landfill urban mining can achieve a $95\%\text{ }CO_2$ emission reduction while remaining economically profitable.
What's next for ScrapCircuit
Built With
- ppt
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.