HID Lamp Process Description

This operation involves the physical separation of the HID lamps containing mercury.

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.

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.

Triple Distillation Process

The crude grade mercury recovered from the thermal process is distilled three times to remove impurities, turning the mercury into a product grade metal.