Fluorescent lamps generally involve mercury within their lamp bulbs. Thus if the lamps are disposed as they are, it might cause environmental pollution. On the other hand, as the life of the lamps depends on the degradation of the discharge performanc...
Fluorescent lamps generally involve mercury within their lamp bulbs. Thus if the lamps are disposed as they are, it might cause environmental pollution. On the other hand, as the life of the lamps depends on the degradation of the discharge performance, the fluorescent substance composing the fluorescent substance coating can be recycled by reusing them as the recycled fluorescent substance. Also, the glass material composing the glass bulbs can be reused. The range of search was limited in the open patents of USA (US), European Union (EU), Japan (JP), Korea (KR) and SCI journals from 1977 to 2011. Patents and journals were collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents and journals was analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies. Recovery method of metals from spent fluorescent lamps is mainly the focus on the recovery of precious metals using acid treatment and, detoxification technology is related with controlling process of mercury using a filter system.