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CN-121986177-A - Pyrometallurgical recycling of end-of-life batteries

CN121986177ACN 121986177 ACN121986177 ACN 121986177ACN-121986177-A

Abstract

According to the present invention there is provided a process for extracting one or more valuable base metals from end-of-life battery waste comprising the steps of obtaining end-of-life battery waste having a content of one or more valuable metals, subjecting the soot to a pyrometallurgical furnace defined by a turbulent puddle comprising one or more sulfidizing agents, one or more fluxing agents, one or more fuels, thereby providing an oxygen partial pressure of about 10 ‑13 to about 10 ‑4 atm, forming base metal matte and slag comprising less than about 5 wt% of base metal, separating the matte from the slag, and further refining the base metal matte to obtain one or more valuable base metals.

Inventors

  • S. Nicole

Assignees

  • 嘉能可科技有限公司

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20231215
Priority Date
20230711

Claims (20)

  1. 1. A method for extracting one or more valuable base metals from end-of-life battery waste, the method comprising the steps of: a) Obtaining an end-of-life battery waste having a content of one or more valuable base metals; b) Subjecting the end-of-life battery waste to a pyrometallurgical furnace treatment defined by a molten turbulent bath comprising: One or more low temperature (< 900 ℃) vulcanizing agents; one or more fluxing agents; one or more fuels and/or coolants; Thereby providing an oxygen partial pressure of about 10 -13 to about 10 -4 atm; c) Forming a base metal matte and a slag comprising less than about 5wt% base metal, the balance being attributable to the matte; d) The matte is separated from the slag.
  2. 2. The method according to claim 1, comprising the steps of: e) The base metal matte is further refined to separate and purify one or more valuable base metals.
  3. 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more sulfiding agents comprise sulfur, gypsum, metal sulfides and/or metal sulfates, such as sodium, calcium, magnesium, copper, iron (II), iron (III), hydrogen, and lead.
  4. 4. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the one or more sulfiding agents are added such that the amount of sulfur in the base metal matte is from about 1 wt to about 28 wt%.
  5. 5. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the partial pressure of oxygen is from about 10 -10.5 to about 10 -7 atm.
  6. 6. A method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the further refining comprises converting the metal sulphides present in the base metal matte into their respective chemical products or metal products by conventional techniques.
  7. 7. A method as set forth in any preceding claim wherein the pyrometallurgical furnace is further defined as having a temperature greater than about 1000 ℃.
  8. 8. The method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein step b), step c) and step d) are performed in a single vessel.
  9. 9. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein step b) and step c) are performed in separate vessels from step d), optionally operably connected to achieve substantially continuous operation.
  10. 10. The method according to claim 9, employing a plurality of vessels arranged in series or parallel, preferably in series.
  11. 11. The method according to any of the preceding claims, which is adapted and/or expandable to continuous flow or intermittent scenes.
  12. 12. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the one or more valuable base metals comprise Li, au, ag, al, ca, cr, co, cu, fe, ga, K, mg, mn, na, ni and V.
  13. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more valuable base metals comprise Li, mn, cu, co and/or Ni.
  14. 14. The method of any one of the preceding claims, which produces a yield (based on extracted valuable metal) of about 1% to about 100%.
  15. 15. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein the pyrometallurgical furnace is further defined as having an end-of-life battery material feed concentration of about 0.1% w/w to about 90% w/w.
  16. 16. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the end-of-life battery waste is obtained by crushing or comminuting end-of-life batteries to a predetermined average particle size.
  17. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the end-of-life battery waste material has an average particle size of about 25 nm to about 1000 mm.
  18. 18. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the end-of-life battery waste is untreated (chemical treatment, mechanical treatment, physical treatment such as heating or pyrolysis) prior to use.
  19. 19. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 17, wherein the end-of-life battery waste is treated (chemically treated, mechanically treated and/or physically treated such as heated or pyrolyzed) prior to use.
  20. 20. The method of any of the preceding claims, wherein electrolyte from a battery is still present/absent in the end-of-life battery waste.

Description

Pyrometallurgical recycling of end-of-life batteries RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application claims 2023, 7, 11 australian provisional patent application 2023902216 and the official priority of australian provisional patent application 2023903803 at 2023, 11, 27. The contents of AU '216 and AU'803 are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Technical Field The present invention relates to a method for treating an end-of-life battery to obtain one or more valuable base metals (e.g., ni, co, cu, zn, pb, mn, etc.) and associated base metals (e.g., au, ag, pt, etc.) in a molten sulfonium phase at high recovery. The matte phase can then be processed in a base metal refinery. The remaining slag may be sold or safely disposed of. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of extracting valuable battery materials and/or valuable metals (e.g., cobalt, copper, nickel, lithium, etc.) from end-of-life batteries, preferably lithium ion batteries. More specifically, the present invention describes a method for smelting an end-of-life lithium ion battery, wherein the method comprises feeding a mixture of these materials plus sulfiding agent, fluxing agent and fuel into a furnace, injecting air and/or oxygen into the molten charge to achieve an oxygen partial pressure of 10 -6 atm to 10 -11 atm, thereby forming a base metal matte enriched in most of the valuable metals. Slag containing less than 5wt.% base metal is also formed. The molten slag is then sold (as aggregate), treated to recover non-base metals (e.g., lithium), or disposed of. The molten base metal matte may be further processed in a base metal refinery or smelted by known techniques. While the invention will be described hereinafter with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the spirit and scope of the invention may be embodied in a variety of other forms Background Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field. The rate of recovery of valuable metals from their raw ore is increasing exponentially. In the case of strictly limited overall supply, some metals are already under-supplied and under sustainable pressure. Without increasing the strength of recovery, the global supply of certain metals will inevitably be exhausted long before consumer demand is met. Examples of such metals include nickel, copper, manganese, cobalt and lithium. The value of cobalt is mainly in its application in industries such as alloys, batteries, catalysis, pigments, radioisotopes, electroplating and enamels. Nickel is used in many industrial and consumer products including stainless steel, alnico magnets, cast iron, rechargeable batteries (e.g., nickel-iron batteries), electric guitar strings, microphone pick-up heads (microphone capsule), plumbing fixture attachment coatings, and specialty alloys (e.g., permalloy, elvan and invar). It is widely used in many other alloys, including nickel brass and nickel bronze, and alloys with copper, chromium, aluminum, lead, cobalt, silver, and gold. Manganese is industrially applicable to steelmaking, alloy manufacturing, batteries, resistors, coinage and ceramic coloration. At the industrial level, lithium has been increasingly popular for its many uses, ceramic, glass, battery, electronic device, grease, metallurgy, pyrotechnic manufacturing, air purification, optical device, polymer chemistry, military applications, and medicine, to name a few. One of the main uses of lithium is in batteries-and as (among other emerging technologies) all-electric vehicles are brought on the road in the next few years, their demand will only continue to increase. Lithium is particularly suitable for use in batteries because it has a high electrode potential (highest of all metals) and low atomic mass, which results in high charge-to-weight and power-to-weight ratios. Lithium batteries are preferred over other batteries due to their relatively high charge density (long life), but the current disadvantage is the relatively high cost per unit. Depending on the design and the compound used, lithium batteries can produce voltages ranging from 1.5V (comparable to zinc-carbon batteries or alkaline batteries) to about 3.7V. With the increasing awareness of the environment in society and the need for battery power as a substitute for fossil fuels, the formation of new waste streams from spent batteries has become necessary. Yet another necessity that this concept leads to in conjunction with such waste streams is the proliferation of recycling technologies, for example, in which at least some of the valuable metals contained in the spent batteries are recovered and recycled for future use. It is estimated that by 2030, about 120 ten thousand tons of lithium ion batteries will reach end of life. This includes the estimated possi