Method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12000018-B2
Application number	US-201816648826-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2018
Priority date	Oct 23, 2017
Publication date	Jun 4, 2024
Grant date	Jun 4, 2024

Abstract

Provided is a method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt with which it is possible to selectively and efficiently separate copper, as well as nickel and cobalt, from an alloy including copper, nickel, and cobalt such as an alloy having high corrosion resistance that includes copper, nickel, and cobalt obtained by dry treatment of waste lithium ion cells. An alloy including copper, nickel, and cobalt is brought into contact with sulfuric acid in the joint presence of a sulfurizing agent, and a solid containing copper and a leachate containing nickel and cobalt are obtained.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt, the method comprising:
producing an alloy containing copper metal, nickel metal, and cobalt metal in the form of an alloy powder;
adding a sulfurization agent to the alloy powder to establish a joint presence of the sulfurization agent and the alloy powder;
wherein the sulfurization agent is one or more selected from the group consisting of elemental sulfur, hydrogen sulfide gas, sodium hydrogen sulfide and sodium sulfide; and
bringing the alloy powder into contact with sulfuric acid in the joint presence, whereby the nickel metal and the cobalt metal are leached from the alloy powder and the copper metal contained in the alloy powder is sulfurized by the sulfurization agent to obtain a solid containing copper sulfide and a leachate containing the nickel existing as an ion and the cobalt existing as an ion.

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

3. The method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt according to claim 1 ,
wherein the alloy power has a particle diameter of less than or equal to 300 μm.

4. The method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt according to claim 1 ,
wherein the solid containing the copper sulfide and the leachate containing the nickel existing as an ion and the cobalt existing as an ion are separated, and then, copper remaining in the leachate containing nickel and cobalt is removed.

5. The method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt according to claim 2 ,
wherein the alloy power has a particle diameter of less than or equal to 300 μm.

6. The method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt according to claim 2 ,
wherein the solid containing the copper sulfide and the leachate containing the nickel existing as an ion and the cobalt existing as an ion are separated, and then, copper remaining in the leachate containing nickel and cobalt is removed.

7. The method for separating copper from nickel and cobalt according to claim 3 ,
wherein the solid containing the copper sulfide and the leachate containing the nickel existing as an ion and the cobalt existing as an ion are separated, and then, copper remaining in the leachate containing nickel and cobalt is removed.

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

Assignees

• Sumitomo Metal Mining Co

Inventors

• Higaki Tatsuya
• Takenouchi Hiroshi
• Kobayashi Hiroshi
• Asano Satoshi

Classifications

• C22B7/007 Primary

  by acid leaching · CPC title

• C01G3/12

  Sulfides · CPC title

• C22B3/08 Primary

  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

• C22B15/0071 Primary

  containing sulfur · CPC title