The present application relates to a process for the purification of waste materials or industrial by-products, the process comprising the steps of: a) Preparing a composition (C) by blending or mixing waste materials or industrial by-products comprising chlorine (B) with one or more materials comprising heavy metals (HM) b) Reacting (B) and (HM) by thermal treatment of (C) c) Separating evaporated heavy metal chloride compounds (HMCC) d) Obtaining a solid material after the thermal treatment step.

A method for recovering the valuable materials from energy storage devices (e.g., spent rechargeable lithium batteries, especially those batteries using nickel-based or nickel and cobalt containing cathode materials) are described. In particular, the proposed method applies carbonyl technology, also known as vapometallurgy, to regenerate pure materials which can be reused as raw materials for making active cathode materials for new lithium batteries.

The present disclosure concerns a process for the concentration of lithium in metallurgical fumes. The process comprises the steps of: providing a metallurgical molten bath furnace; preparing a metallurgical charge comprising lithium-bearing material, transition metals, and fluxing agents; smelting the metallurgical charge and fluxing agents in reducing conditions in said furnace, thereby obtaining a molten bath with an alloy and a slag phase; and, optionally separating the alloy and the slag phase; characterized in that a major part of the lithium is fumed as LiCl from the molten slag, by addition of alkali or earth alkali chloride to the process. Using a single smelting step, valuable transition metals such as cobalt and nickel also present in the charge are collected in an alloy phase, while the lithium reports to the fumes. The lithium in the fumes is available in concentrated form, suitable for subsequent hydrometallurgical processing.

The present invention provides a method for recycling waste cemented carbide by molten salt chemistry, comprising the steps of: (1) carrying out vacuum dehydration on a molten salt media; (2) carrying out oxidation-dissolution reaction on waste cemented carbide in the molten salt media; (3) carrying out deoxidation treatment on a molten salt system; (4) carrying out thermal reduction reaction on the molten salt system; and (5) washing, filtering and vacuum drying obtained mixture by thermal reduction reaction to carry out separation and collection of the molten salt media and waste cemented carbide nanopowder. Compared with existing method for recycling waste cemented carbide, the invention has the advantages of short flow, simple equipment, low energy consumption, and excellent recycled products. Moreover, the invention doesn't produce solid/gas/liquid harmful substances to pollute the environment, and can create enormous economic and social benefits.

The present invention relates to a method for recovering lithium from a waste lithium secondary battery using a pyrometallurgical smelting method, which comprises a step for melting a waste lithium secondary battery containing nickel, cobalt, copper, and lithium, a flux having a melting temperature of 1,400? C. or less, and a lithium recovery agent to separate and obtain a slag, metal phase and lithium compound, wherein the lithium recovery agent includes at least one of chlorine and fluorine, and wherein the amount of each of nickel, cobalt and copper contained in the metal phase is more than 10 times compared to that of the slag.

Provided are a method and molten salt system for recovering rare earth elements from NdFeB waste and use of ferric oxide as a raw material of a manganese-zinc ferrite. The molten salt system comprising the following components in percentage by weight: 40% of K.sub.3AlF.sub.6 or Na.sub.3AlF.sub.6, 40% of KBe.sub.2F.sub.5, and 20% of KAlF.sub.4. By adopting the three-component molten salt system of the present invention, recovery rates of rare earth elements extracted from NdFeB waste all can reach 98% or above. By adopting the three-component molten salt system, extraction temperature is 100-400? C. lower than that of all current similar halogenation methods, and extraction time is fold shorted to 1-3 h. The reduction of the extraction temperature and the shortening of the melting time greatly reduce the energy consumption of extracting rare earth elements from NdFeB waste, and the economic benefits are remarkable.

A pyrometallurgical process for recycling shredded spent electric vehicle batteries of Li-ion type and/or waste from the production of these new batteries and battery rejects, and/or portable batteries of Li-ion type. The process entails the addition of iron, smelting via the supply of energy, separation of a slag, oxidizing treatment and separation of a second slag.

A method for recovering Vanadium from a secondary source such as fly ash. Leaching is involved using single or combined acids such as hydrochloric and sulfuric in a temperature range of 20 C. and 100 C. The leaching is performed in sequential operations with recovery of Vanadium in the range of 92%. The recovered Vanadium can be formulated into an electrolyte for redox batteries.

The embodiments disclosed herein relates to a method for producing a secondary battery material from black mass. The method for producing a secondary battery material from black mass according to one embodiment includes a roasting step of roasting black mass, a pre-extraction step of leaching a roasted black mass roasted in the roasting step with water to separate a lithium solution and a cake, a first evaporation concentration step of producing lithium carbonate crystals by evaporating and concentrating the lithium solution produced in the pre-extraction step, a leaching step of leaching the cake separated in the pre-extraction step, a first purification step of removing copper and aluminum from the leaching solution produced in the leaching step, a post-extraction step of neutralizing the solution prepared in the first purification step and separating the solution into a lithium solution and a cake containing Ni, Co, and Mn (NCM cake), a feeding step of feeding the lithium carbonate crystals produced in the first evaporation concentration step and the lithium solution prepared in the post-extraction step to a lithium hydroxide production step.

Recovery of scandium from mined red mud includes adding an acid to a quantity of red mud for converting oxides in the red mud, and roasting the quantity of red mud for decomposing compounds having low thermal stability, typically iron and titanium. Water is added to the roasted red mud for leaching the converted oxides into a leach liquor mixture including scandium and other dissolved rare earths, and the leach liquor mixture is agitated by sonication or ball milling to increase an exposed surface area of red mud particles in the leach liquor. PH of the leach liquor is adjusted to precipitate the rare earths while leaving the scandium in solution in the leach liquor, followed by precipitating the separated scandium oxalate remaining in the leach liquor by reducing the pH and adding oxalic acid. Precipitated scandium oxalate may then be filtered from the leach liquor.