Provided is a sorting method for valuable resources, including a thermal treatment step of thermally treating a target containing valuable resources, to melt aluminum and separate a melt, a pulverizing step of pulverizing a thermally treated product remaining after the melt is separated, to obtain a pulverized product, a magnetic sorting step of sorting the valuable resources from the pulverized product by a magnetic force, and a wind force sorting step of sorting one valuable resource from another valuable resource in the valuable resources by a wind force.

The present disclosure relates to a system (100) for extracting electrode material from batteries. A shredding unit (104) configured to receive the cooled feedstock from the freezing unit (102). The shredding unit (104) is configured to shred the feedstock into powder form. A cyclone separator (110) configured with the shredding unit (104), and configured to receive air bone electrode material particles generated as a result of shredding the batteries. A separating unit (106) configured with the shredding unit (104), and configured to separate the electrode material particles. A cleaning unit (108) operatively configured with the separating unit and the cyclone separator (110). The cleaning unit (108) is configured to receive the powdered electrode particles from the shredding unit (104), and powdered electrode materials from a first output of the cyclone separator (110). A mixing agitator (110) is configured to receive the powdered electrode material from the cleaning unit (108).

The present application provides a system and method for discharging and processing of lithium ion batteries to extract one or more metals. The extracted metals are in a powder form that can be reused at second stage processing facilities. The extracted metal powder can include lithium and at least one of cobalt, nickel, manganese, and carbon.

A process for recovering materials from a black mass material obtained from lithium-ion batteries can include: i) conveying a black mass material as a black mass solid stream; ii) leaching the black mass solid stream to form a pregnant leach solution and residual solids; iii) separating the pregnant leach solution from the residual solids; iv) isolating a copper product from the pregnant leach solution; v) isolating an aluminum (Al) and/or iron (Fe) product from the pregnant leach solution; vi) isolating a manganese (Mn) product from the from the pregnant leach solution; vii) isolating a cobalt (Co) product from the from the pregnant leach solution; viii) isolating a nickel (Ni) product from the from the pregnant leach solution; ix) isolating a salt by-product from the pregnant leach solution; and x) isolating a lithium product the pregnant leach solution.

A system for carrying out size reduction of battery materials under immersion conditions can include a housing containing an immersion liquid and at least a first comminuting device submerged in the immersion liquid and configured to cause a size reduction of the battery materials to form first reduced-size battery materials, and at least a first outlet through which a size-reduced feed stream comprising a black mass solid material and an electrolyte materials entrained within the immersion liquid can exit the comminuting apparatus. At least a first separator may be configured to separate the size-reduced feed stream into at least a first stream that comprises the black mass solid material liberated from the battery materials and a retained portion of the immersion liquid having entrained electrolyte materials, and a second stream comprising a second portion of the immersion liquid having entrained electrolyte materials.

The present application provides a system and method for discharging and processing of lithium ion batteries to extract one or more metals. The extracted metals are in a powder form that can be reused at second stage processing facilities. The extracted metal powder can include lithium and at least one of cobalt, nickel, manganese, and carbon.

Disclosed are approaches for recycling LIBs where lithium is recovered before the other node metals in order to increase the amount of lithium recovered. For such approaches, the other node metals need not be further refined or recovered and, despite the small loss of these other node metals as impurities in the first-recovered lithium, the available alternative dispositions for these other node metalssuch as in the form of multi-metal-oxides (MMO)can render the recovery of lithium before the other node metals to be advantageous. Several such approaches may feature nitration, roasting, lithium trapping, and/or other innovative features to facilitate greater and purer recoveries of the target LIB components.

There is provided a method for recovering valuable materials from lithium ion secondary batteries, which includes: a heat-treatment step of performing a heat treatment on a lithium ion secondary battery to obtain a heat-treated product; a first classification step of classifying a crushed product, which is obtained by crushing the heat-treated product, at a classification point of 600 m or greater and 2,400 m or less to obtain a coarse-particle product 1 and a small-particle product; a grinding step of grinding the small-particle product to obtain a ground product; a second classification step of classifying the ground product at one or more classification points that are smaller than the classification point of the first classification step and are 75 m or greater and 1, 200 m or less to obtain a coarse-particle product 2 and a fine-particle product 1; and a magnetic separation step of sorting the fine-particle product 1 obtained in the second classification step using magnetic force.

A system for separating a mineral from a clay using a gas injection module includes a solution tank configured to receive a supersaturated solution including at least one mineral. The system also includes a gas injection module in fluid communication with the solution tank and configured to receive at least a portion of the supersaturated solution. The system includes at least one gas injection port in fluid communication with a source of gas and the gas injection module. The gas injection port is configured to inject a gas to the supersaturated solution. During operation of the system, the gas causes at least a portion of the supersaturated solution to crystallize.

A spent and/or decommissioned lead-acid accumulator treatment plant may include: a grinder configured to receive a plurality of spent and/or decommissioned lead-acid accumulators and to output a ground heterogeneous material; and a plurality of separator devices, wherein each of the separator devices is configured to receive a respective input heterogeneous material and to extract therefrom at least two respective output fractions, wherein each of the output fractions is homogeneous or less heterogeneous than the respective input heterogeneous material, wherein the respective input heterogeneous material is the ground heterogeneous material or is one of the at least two respective output fractions of another one of the separator devices. The plant further may include an air pressurizing device and at least one diffuser configured to diffuse compressed air generated by the air pressurizing device onto at least one of the output fractions of the separator devices.