Method for separating copper, and nickel and cobalt

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11718894-B2
Application number	US-201816771419-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 28, 2018
Priority date	Dec 18, 2017
Publication date	Aug 8, 2023
Grant date	Aug 8, 2023

Abstract

Provided is a method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt, which can efficiently and selectively separate copper from nickel and cobalt in a substance containing copper, nickel, and cobalt in a waste lithium ion battery, etc. In this method, a substance containing copper, nickel, and cobalt is sulfurated to obtain a sulfide, the obtained sulfide that contains copper, nickel, and cobalt is brought into contact with an acid solution to obtain a solid containing copper and a leachate containing nickel and cobalt. The sulfide preferably contains copper sulfide as a main component, and contains nickel metal and cobalt metal. In-addition, when bringing the sulfide into contact with the acid solution, the added amounts of the sulfide and the acid solution are preferably adjusted such that the oxidation-reduction potential of the obtained leachate is maintained at 150 mV or less where a silver/silver chloride electrode is a reference electrode.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt, the method comprising:
sulfurizing a material containing copper, nickel, and cobalt to obtain a sulfide-containing copper sulfide as a main component and also containing nickel metal and cobalt metal;
bringing the obtained sulfide into contact with an acid solution, which is a solution containing at least one selected from the group consisting of sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid and nitric acid, to obtain a solid containing copper sulfide and a leachate containing nickel and cobalt; and
wherein when the sulfide is brought into contact with the acid solution, adjusting addition amounts of the sulfide and the acid solution, such that an oxidation-reduction potential of the obtained leachate is maintained at a value of 150 mV or less where a silver/silver chloride electrode is a reference electrode.

2. The method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt according to claim 1 , wherein the material containing copper, nickel, and cobalt is obtained by heating, melting, and reducing a waste lithium ion battery.

3. The method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt according to claim 1 , wherein the sulfide has a powder form having a particle diameter of 300 μm or less.

4. The method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt according to claim 1 , wherein after the solid containing copper sulfide and the leachate containing nickel and cobalt are separated, a treatment of removing copper remaining in the leachate is performed.

5. The method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt according to claim 4 , wherein copper remaining in the leachate is removed by one or more types of methods selected from a sulfurizing treatment, an electrowinning treatment, and a neutralizing and precipitating treatment.

Assignees

• Sumitomo Metal Mining Co

Inventors

• Takenouchi Hiroshi
• Kobayashi Hiroshi
• Shoji Hirofumi
• Higaki Tatsuya

Classifications

• B09B3/40

  involving thermal treatment, e.g. evaporation (processes using mineral binders involving a melting or softening step B09B3/29; involving radiation B09B3/50) · CPC title

• C22B15/0071 Primary

  containing sulfur · CPC title

• C22B3/08

  Sulfuric acid {, other sulfurated acids or salts thereof} · CPC title

• C22B3/44

  by chemical processes (treatment or purification of solutions by liquid-liquid extraction C22B3/26, by ion-exchange extraction C22B3/42) · CPC title

• C22B7/003

  only remelting, e.g. of chips, borings, turnings; apparatus used therefor · CPC title