Nordbatt2019
Recycling of spent alkaline batteries and recovery of manganese
Presenter: Prof. Ulla Lassi
Title: Recycling of spent alkaline batteries and recovery of manganese
Affiliation: University of Oulu
Abstract
Process chemistry was developed to recycle spent alkaline batteries with high recovery rate, Alkaline black mass was dissolved in acidic solutions with high yield and selectivity to zinc and manganese recovery. A finnish spin-off company commercialized this process, to use the obtained metal solution as trace elements in fertilizers.
Anode sludge, a by-product from zinc refining, was also used with the similar type of process. During the selective, reductive leaching, manganese is recovered as manganese sulphate solution with high manganese yield and purified by solvent-extraction. In both cases, the obtained metal solutions with high purity are possible to use as raw materials for battery precursors.