In order to provide a method and device that allow sorting of light-alloy aluminium scrap, the disclosure proposes a method for sorting aluminium scrap and alloys thereof wherein the aluminium scrap is fed to a measuring station, where the electrical conductivity of each aluminium part is measured, and, depending on the result of the measurement, the part is transported further on a dedicated path.

A single-heating stage method for reclaiming or recovering metals like nickel and vanadium from a petroleum waste byproduct has three steps: melting the petroleum waste byproduct in a reducing atmosphere, generating agglomerated metal in the melted byproduct, and lifting the agglomerated metal to an exposed surface of the melted byproduct. The metal precipitates out of the molten byproduct, agglomerates into a separate portion, and rises to an exposed surface of the melted petroleum waste byproduct even though the metal may have greater density than the molten petroleum waste byproduct. The original petroleum waste byproduct stratifies into a byproduct remnant and the agglomerated metal disk. The agglomerated metal disk is separable from the byproduct remnant and may be additionally separated into constituent metals in those embodiments with multiple metals in the disk.

The invention relates to a method for treating used lithium batteries (10) containing the steps: comminuting the batteries (10) such that comminuted material (24) is obtained, and (b) inactivating of the comminuted material (24) such that an inactive comminuted material (42) is obtained. According to the invention, the drying is conducted at a maximum pressure of 300 hPa and a maximum temperature of 80? C. and the deactivated comminuted material (42) is not filled into a transport container and/or said deactivated comminuted material is immediately further processed after the drying process.

The present invention relates to a method for recovering a positive electrode active material from a lithium secondary battery including: 1) separating a positive electrode into a collector and a positive electrode part; 2) removing an organic substance by firing the separated positive electrode part; 3) washing the fired resultant and removing remaining fluorine (F); 4) adding a lithium-containing material into the washed resultant and firing to recover a lithium transition metal oxide.

Disclosed is a method for the decomposition of SiC or SiC-containing materials in which the reaction is guided exclusively via gaseous products for achieving a conversion which is as complete as possible. A preferred application is a recycling process for catalyst materials containing platinum metals on a carrier material made of silicon carbide (SiC). In the thermal process, the catalyst materials are freed from the carrier material, and then they can further be refined. (FIG. 1)

A method for recovering a valuable element, by which method metal with a high proportion of a valuable element can be obtained. The method includes adding a reductant to an oxide containing at least one element selected from the group consisting of nickel and cobalt, followed by heating, to thereby reduce the oxide, the reductant contains at least one selected from the group consisting of metallic iron and an iron oxide, and an addition amount of the reductant is 1.3 equivalent or less.

A system and method of converting tires or other solid carbon based material is disclosed, including providing a chamber, feeding the solid carbon based material into the chamber, rotating the chamber, heating and reducing the material in the chamber, collecting solid residue from the chamber, collecting vapor from the chamber, and converting vapor collected from the chamber to a liquid. In an embodiment, the material includes a whole tire. The tire is heated in the chamber causing the tire to collapse and liquefy, exposing the metal in the tire which aids in grinding the carbon material in the tire as it tumbles, collecting solid residue, for example tire carbons, and collecting vapor, for example vaporized oil, and benzene and methane gas from the chamber and converting the oil. The chamber may be heated to a temperature from about 350 F. to about 1100 F. using gases reclaimed from the material.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method according to which a rare earth element can be efficiently recovered from a workpiece containing at least a rare earth element and an iron group element, and also wear and damage to the treatment container can be suppressed, allowing the container to be used repeatedly for a long period of time. The method of the present invention as a means for resolution is characterized in that in the heat treatment of an oxidation-treated workpiece in the presence of carbon, when the oxidation-treated workpiece is placed in a treatment container, a carbon substance is interposed between the oxidation-treated workpiece and the bottom surface of the container, and the heat treatment is performed in an inert gas atmosphere or in vacuum at a temperature of 1300 C. or more.

A method of producing sodium tungstate of this invention including allowing cemented carbide scrap containing tungsten to react with a molten salt containing sodium sulfate and having added thereto a metal oxide, to thereby obtain sodium tungstate.

A method for recovery of evaporable substances comprises melting (210) of a material comprising evaporable metals and/or evaporable metal compounds into a molten slag. The molten slag is agitated (212) by a submerged jet of hot gas. The hot gas is controlled (214) to have an enthalpy of at least 200 MJ/kmol, and preferably at least 300 MJ/kmol. At least a part of the evaporable metals and/or evaporable metal compounds are fumed off (216) from the molten slag. An arrangement for the method is based on a furnace with a plasma torch submerged into molten slag in the furnace.