Wet sorting process for waste lithium battery and application thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11872595-B2
Application number	US-202118029654-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 13, 2021
Priority date	Dec 28, 2020
Publication date	Jan 16, 2024
Grant date	Jan 16, 2024

Abstract

Disclosed are a wet sorting process for a waste lithium battery and application thereof, which belong to the field of battery material recycling. The wet sorting process includes the following steps of carrying out wet ball milling on a sorting material of a waste lithium battery to obtain a ball-milled product, screening the ball-milled product to obtain a coarse-grained screened material, a medium-grained screened material and a fine-grained screened material, carrying out wet ball milling, screening, magnetic separation and table concentration on the medium-grained screened material to obtain copper, aluminum and a steel shell, and carrying out flotation, magnetic separation and table concentration on the fine-grained screened material to obtain cathode material powder, graphite, copper and aluminum.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A wet sorting process for a waste lithium battery, comprising the following steps of:
(1) carrying out wet ball milling on a sorting material of the waste lithium battery to obtain a ball-milled product;
(2) screening the ball-milled product to obtain a coarse-grained screened material, a medium-grained screened material and a fine-grained screened material; wherein, in step (2), the coarse-grained screened material is returned to step (1) for ball milling;
(3) carrying out wet ball milling, screening, magnetic separation and table concentration on the medium-grained screened material to obtain copper, aluminum and a steel shell; wherein, in step (3), a size of a sieve hole of the screening is 0.15 mm, and a screened product with a size smaller than 0.15 mm is fed into step (4) for flotation; and
(4) carrying out flotation, magnetic separation and table concentration on the fine-grained screened material to obtain cathode material powder, graphite, copper and aluminum;
wherein, in step (2), the coarse-grained screened material has a particle size of greater than 2 mm to 4 mm, the medium-grained screened material has a particle size of 0.15 mm to 2 mm, and the fine-grained screened material has a particle size of less than 0.15 mm.

2. The wet sorting process according to claim 1 , wherein in step (1), the sorting material of the waste lithium battery is prepared by the following method: soaking the waste lithium battery in saturated brine for electro discharge treatment; washing and drying the discharged waste lithium battery; and calcining and crushing the dried battery to obtain the sorting material of the waste lithium battery.

3. The wet sorting process according to claim 1 , wherein in step (1), a mass concentration of the sorting material of the waste battery in the wet ball milling ranges from 50% to 60%, and a filling rate of a steel ball ranges from 35% to 40%.

4. The wet sorting process according to claim 1 , wherein in step (3), the specific process of the magnetic separation is: adding the medium-grained screened material to a feeding trough of a magnetic separator, adding water to adjust a concentration of the medium-grained screened material, and feeding the medium-grained screened material into the magnetic separator for magnetic separation to obtain the steel shell, the copper and the aluminum.

5. The wet sorting process according to claim 1 , wherein in step (3), a magnetic field intensity of the magnetic separation ranges from 5,000 Gs to 6,000 Gs, and a mass concentration of the fed material of the magnetic separation ranges from 20% to 30%; and in step (4), a magnetic field intensity of the magnetic separation ranges from 3,000 Gs to 4,000 Gs, and a mass concentration of the fed material of the magnetic separation ranges from 30% to 40%.

6. The wet sorting process according to claim 1 , wherein in step (4), the specific process of the flotation is: roughing the fine-sized screened material to obtain a roughed concentrate and a roughed tailing, and carrying out primary cleaning and secondary cleaning on the roughed concentrate to obtain a graphite concentrate; and carrying out primary scavenging and secondary scavenging on the roughed tailing to obtain a graphite-removed product.

7. The wet sorting process according to claim 1 , wherein in step (4), a preparation used in the flotation comprises a collecting agent, a foaming agent and a dispersing agent; the collecting agent is diesel oil; the foaming agent is No. 2 oil; and the dispersing agent is sodium hexametaphosphate.

8. The wet sorting process according to claim 7 , wherein an addition amount of the collecting agent ranges from 200 g/t to 300 g/t; an addition amount of the foaming agent ranges from 150 g/t to 200 g/t; and an addition amount of the dispersing agent ranges from 1,200 g/t to 1,500 g/t.

9. The wet sorting process according to claim 1 , wherein in step (3), the specific process of the table concentration is: adding a nonmagnetic material after the magnetic separation to a feeding port of a table concentrator, adding water to adjust a concentration of the nonmagnetic material after the magnetic separation, and vibrating based on a difference in specific gravities between the copper and the aluminum to separate the copper and the aluminum; in step (3), a mass concentration of the fed material of the table concentrator ranges from 15% to 25%; and in step (4), a mass concentration of the fed material of the table concentrator ranges from 25% to 30%.

10. A process for recycling a battery comprising the wet sorting process according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Hunan Brunp Recycling Tech Co Ltd
• Guangdong Brunp Recycling Technology Co Ltd
• Hunan Brunp Ev Recycling Co Ltd

Inventors

• Zhao Jieming
• Gong Qinxue
• Chen Ruokui
• Li Qiang
• Li Changdong

Classifications

• B07B15/00 Primary

  Combinations of apparatus for separating solids from solids by dry methods applicable to bulk material, e.g. loose articles fit to be handled like bulk material (using wet methods B03B7/00; using gas currents B07B9/00) · CPC title

• B03C1/005

  Pretreatment specially adapted for magnetic separation · CPC title

• B09B3/35

  Shredding, crushing or cutting · CPC title

• B07B2220/04

  Batteries · CPC title

• B07B2230/01

  Wet separation · CPC title