The present disclosure concerns the production of precursor compounds for lithium battery cathodes. Batteries or their scrap are smelted in reducing conditions, thereby forming an alloy suitable for further hydrometallurgical refining, and a slag. The alloy is leached in acidic conditions, producing a Ni- and Co-bearing solution, which is refined. The refining steps are greatly simplified as most elements susceptible to interfere with the refining steps concentrate in the slag. Metals such as Co, Ni and Mn are then precipitated from the solution, forming a suitable starting product for the synthesis of new battery precursor compounds.

The invention discloses a method for cracking slag and smelting soot of the waste circuit board, belongs to the field of comprehensive recycling of valuable elements from typical soot of waste circuit boards, and particularly relates to a method for cracking slag and smelting soot of the waste circuit board for debromination and comprehensive recovery of copper and zinc. The method includes the following steps of: crushing and sorting, mixture roasting, reinforced leaching, replacement and silver precipitation, sulfuration and copper precipitation, and evaporation crystallization. Compared to traditional recycling technology, the purpose of treating two kinds of solid waste in a coupling mode through one recycling technology is achieved. Through mixed sulfuric acid roasting, the requirement of bromide synergistic removal of the waste circuit board cracking slag and smelting soot is met, and the purpose of selective conversion of copper and zinc is achieved.

A method for recycling a battery including the following steps: a) dissolution of a battery waste, for example an electrode, including lithium and a metal selected from cobalt and manganese, such that a solution to be treated containing lithium ions and metal ions is formed, b) addition of a peroxymonosulfate salt to the solution to be treated, the solution to be treated being regulated at a pH ranging from 1 to 4 when the metal is cobalt or at a pH ranging from 0.1 to 2.5 when the metal is manganese, such that the metal ions are selectively precipitated in the form of metal oxyhydroxide, c) separation of the lithium ions from the solution to be treated. Advantageously, the solution further comprises nickel ions.

An apparatus, method and system are provided to recover constituent components from single use batteries. In particular, the apparatus, method and system may be used to recover zinc and manganese in the form of sulfates from depleted commercial which in turn may be subsequently used for other applications, such as micronutrients and fertilizers.

A system for asbestos neutralization, that includes a neutralization unit having a module configured for sorting of asbestos waste, an asbestos waste grinder; a concentrated sulfuric acid tank, a vat containing a hot diluted acid solution, for which temperature is between 70° C. and 100° C., in which grinded asbestos waste containing asbestos is dipped, the solution is configured for neutralizing asbestos contained in the grinded asbestos waste, a filtration unit to separate, at the end of the neutralization reaction, a solid inert waste from a liquid phase of the diluted acid solution, a regeneration unit for the diluted acid solution, which adjusts the hydrogen potential of the extracted liquid phase by adding concentrated sulfuric acid from the tank, and means for transferring the regenerated solution into the vat.

A process for the recovery of lithium from waste lithium ion batteries or parts thereof is disclosed. The process comprising the steps of A) providing a crude lithium hydroxide as a solid, which contains fluoride; and (B) dissolving the crude lithium hydroxide solid with a lower alcohol such as methanol or ethanol provides good separation of lithium in high purity.

The present invention lies in the field of pyrometallurgy and discloses a process and a slag suitable for the recovery of Ni and Co from Li-ion batteries or their waste. The slag composition is defined according to:

10%<MnO<40%;

(CaO+1.5*Li.sub.2O)/Al.sub.2O.sub.3>0.3;

CaO+0.8*MnO+0.8*Li.sub.2O<60%;

(CaO+2*Li.sub.2O+0.4*MnO)/SiO.sub.2≥2.0;

Li.sub.2≥1%; and,

Al.sub.2O.sub.3+SiO.sub.2+CaO+Li.sub.2O+MnO+FeO+MgO>85%.

This composition is particularly adapted to limit or avoid the corrosion of furnaces lined with magnesia-bearing refractory bricks.

In a method for recovering an active metal of a lithium secondary battery according to an embodiment, a waste cathode active material mixture is prepared from a waste cathode of a lithium secondary battery. A preliminary precursor mixture is formed by reacting the waste cathode active material mixture with a reactive gas in a fluidized bed reactor. The preliminary precursor mixture is cooled by spraying different first and second refrigerants to the preliminary precursor mixture. A lithium precursor is recovered from the cooled preliminary precursor mixture.

Recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) from electronic wastes is a promising approach. The existing methods for separation of REE from the secondary sources are not economically viable and scalable. A method and system for separation of rare earth metals from a plurality of secondary sources has been provided. The magnet is obtained from the secondary sources which is then crushed to a coarser size. The powder is then demagnetized by heating and roasted at high temperature to obtain the metal oxides. The metals oxides are then dissolved by acid leaching to obtain leach liquor. Iron is removed from leach liquor by precipitation and separated by filtration. The individual REE is then separated by liquid-liquid extraction. The conditions in liquid-liquid extraction are adjusted such that only desired REE is separated. The extracted REE is then stripped out by acid. The individual rare earth element is then precipitated and dried.

Disclosed is a process for recovering copper from secondary raw materials including in a feed batch smelting in a furnace a feedstock including copper oxide and elemental iron for forming a concentrated copper intermediate, whereby heat is generated by the redox reactions converting iron to oxide and copper oxide to copper, whereby copper collects in a molten liquid metal phase and iron oxides collect in a supernatant liquid slag phase, whereby at the end of the batch the liquid phases separate and may be removed from the furnace as smelter slag and as the concentrated copper intermediate, wherein during the smelting step an excess of elemental iron is maintained in the furnace relative to the amount required for completing the redox reactions, and further heat input is provided by the injection of an oxygen containing gas for oxidizing the excess iron.