A method for extracting secondary metal values from a sulfuric acid leachate is provided. The method includes providing a leachate which contains a primary metal and a plurality of secondary metals, wherein the primary metal is selected from the group consisting of Cu, Li and Ni and is derived from sulfuric acid leaching of an ore; passing the leachate through a first ion exchange resin which is selective to, and releasably binds, the plurality of secondary metals; stripping the plurality of secondary metals from the second or third ion exchange resins, thereby obtaining a first extract; and recovering the secondary metals from the first extract.

The invention provides a method for delaminating a composite by immersing the composite into a delamination solution; wherein the composite comprises a metal substrate and a coating applied on one side or both sides of the metal substrate, wherein the coating comprises a polymeric binder; and wherein the polymeric binder comprises an aqueous copolymer. The use of delamination solution comprising an alkali metal silicate salt allows for complete delamination of the composite in a highly efficient and extremely fast manner. Furthermore, the delamination method disclosed herein circumvents complex separation processes, contamination and corrosion of the metal substrate and enables an excellent materials recovery. An application of the method for delaminating an electrode for a battery is disclosed herein.

The invention provides a method for delaminating a composite by immersing the composite into a delamination solution; wherein the composite comprises a metal substrate and a coating applied on one side or both sides of the metal substrate, wherein the coating comprises a polymeric binder; and wherein the polymeric binder comprises an aqueous copolymer. The use of delamination solution comprising an alkali metal silicate salt allows for complete delamination of the composite in a highly efficient and extremely fast manner. Furthermore, the delamination method disclosed herein circumvents complex separation processes, contamination and corrosion of the metal substrate and enables an excellent materials recovery. An application of the method for delaminating an electrode for a battery is disclosed herein.

This invention discloses a process and its products for spent lithium-ion batteries treatment, which relates to the field of spent battery treatment technology. This process comprises: fully discharging spent lithium-ion batteries to obtain discharged spent lithium-ion batteries; crushing spent lithium-ion batteries to obtain crushed products of spent lithium-ion batteries; screening crushed products of spent lithium-ion batteries by screens to obtain an overflow and an underflow; sorting the overflow to obtain separator products, plastic products, iron products, copper foil products and aluminum foil products; mechanochemically activating the underflow to obtain activated products; acid leaching the activated products by degradable organic acid to obtain a mixture containing activated products and the organic acid leaching solution; filtering the mixture which contains the activated products and the organic acid leaching solution to obtain graphite as filter residues. Copper mud products and LiNi.sub.0.85Co.sub.0.1Al.sub.0.05O.sub.2 can be obtained after further treatments. This process can effectively recover recyclable resources in spent lithium-ion batteries, and reduce pollution of heavy metals.

Described herein is a method for recycling aluminum alloy wheels. The method includes the steps of providing a feed of aluminum alloy wheels of a particular alloy; fragmenting a quantity of the aluminum alloy wheels into a plurality of fragments; subjecting the plurality of fragments to shot blasting to remove surface impurities from the plurality of fragments to produce a plurality of shot blasted pieces; separating the plurality of shot blasted pieces into a plurality of larger shot blasted pieces and a plurality of smaller shot blasted pieces; and, providing the plurality of larger shot blasted pieces for use in producing a recycled aluminum alloy, without providing the plurality of smaller shot blasted pieces for use in producing that recycled aluminum alloy.

Methods of recovering rare earth elements, vanadium, cobalt, or lithium from coal are described. The coal is dissolved in a first solvent to dissolve organic material in the coal and create a slurry containing coal ash enriched with rare earth elements, vanadium, cobalt, or lithium. The enriched coal ash is separated from the first solvent. Residual organic material is removed from the coal ash. The rare earth elements, vanadium, cobalt, or lithium can then be recovered from the coal ash. The coal ash is mixed with an acid stream that dissolves the rare earth elements, thereby creating (i) a leachate containing the rare earth elements and (ii) leached ash. The leachate is heated to obtain acid vapor and an acid-soluble rare earth concentrate. The acid-soluble rare earth concentrate can be fed to a hydrometallurgical process to separate and purify the rare earth elements.

A method of recycling aluminum alloy wheels, the method comprising (a) providing a feed of aluminum alloy wheels; (b) fragmenting the aluminum alloy wheels into a plurality of fragments; (c) cleaning the plurality of fragments to at least partly remove at least one contaminant element therefrom; (d) determining a contaminant concentration estimate for each contaminant element in the plurality of fragments; and (e) operating a data processor to either approve or reject the plurality of fragments, based on an aggregate contaminant concentration calculation. When the plurality of fragments is approved, they may be provided to a downstream recycling process. When the plurality of fragments is rejected, they may not be provided to the downstream recycling process without further cleaning.

A process for the recovery of aluminum, or recycling process, is described, which is based on separating the aluminum contained in aseptic carton packs (1), flexible packs (2) and residual aluminum alloy powder (3) used in manufacturing additive, through the selective dissolution of aluminum in a solution known as Bayer liquor and/or caustic soda, with sodium aluminate (liquid) and hydrogen gas (H.sub.2, gaseous) products. Both products can be used in an alumina refinery, the sodium aluminate is used for the production of aluminum hydroxide and the hydrogen can be used as fuel for boilers, furnaces or similar.

The present invention provides a method for treating at least one lithium ion battery enclosed in a housing containing aluminum, comprising heating the lithium ion battery using a combustion furnace in which a combustion object is incinerated by flames, while preventing the flames from being directly applied to the housing of the lithium ion battery.

The process disclosed herein is method of recovering aluminum from multilayered packaging. The process comprises subjecting multilayered packaging to a reactor with aqueous formic acid, wherein the solution is sonicated using sonic horns. This process allows the recovery of aluminum in its pure metal form. PP/PE components of the multilayered packaging are recovered utilizing density separation, while ink and PET components require further treatment in a toluene reactor which may include sonication.