Process for recycling cobalt-bearing materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12146205-B2
Application number	US-201716341512-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 16, 2017
Priority date	Oct 21, 2016
Publication date	Nov 19, 2024
Grant date	Nov 19, 2024

Abstract

The present invention concerns the recovery of cobalt from cobalt-bearing materials, in particular from cobalt-bearing lithium-ion secondary batteries, from the spent batteries, or from their scrap. A process is divulged for the recovery of cobalt from cobalt-bearing materials, comprising the steps of: providing a converter furnace, charging slag formers and one or more of copper matte, copper-nickel matte, and impure alloy into the furnace, and injecting an oxidizing gas so as to smelt the charge in oxidizing conditions, thereby obtaining a molten bath comprising a crude metal phase, and a cobalt-bearing slag, and separating the crude metal from the cobalt-bearing slag, characterized in that the cobalt-bearing materials are charged into the furnace. This process is particularly suitable for recycling cobalt-bearing lithium-ion secondary batteries. Cobalt is concentrated in a limited amount of converter slag, from which it can economically be retrieved, together with other elements such as copper and/or nickel.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Process for the recovery of cobalt from cobalt-bearing materials, comprising:
providing a converter furnace;
feeding cobalt-bearing materials, slag formers, and oner or more of copper matte, copper-nickel matte, and impure alloy containing copper and/or nickel into the converter furnace,
injecting an oxidizing gas into the converter furnace, thereby oxidizing any sulfidic materials present in the copper matte or copper-nickel matte to form sulfur dioxide, and obtaining a molten bath in the converter furnace comprising a crude metal phase and a cobalt-bearing slag, but free of sulfur; and,
separating the crude metal phase from the cobalt-bearing slag;
wherein the cobalt-bearing materials comprise secondary batteries, spent batteries, or their scrap and wherein more than 90% by weight of the cobalt present in the cobalt-bearing materials is recovered in the cobalt-bearing slag.

2. Process according to claim 1 , wherein the more than 90% by weight of the cobalt present in the cobalt-bearing materials is recovered in the cobalt-bearing slag, by adjusting the amount of oxidizing gas.

3. Process for the recovery of cobalt from cobalt-bearing materials according to claim 1 , wherein the cobalt in the cobalt-bearing slag amounts to between 2% and 20% by weight.

4. Process for the recovery of cobalt from cobalt-bearing materials according to claim 1 , further comprising a step of recovering cobalt and copper from the cobalt-bearing slag.

5. Process for the recovery of cobalt from cobalt-bearing materials according to claim 4 , wherein the step of recovering cobalt and copper from the cobalt-bearing slag comprises an acidic aqueous leaching operation.

6. Process for the recovery of cobalt from cobalt-bearing materials according to claim 4 , wherein the step of recovering cobalt and copper from the cobalt-bearing slag comprises a reducing smelting operation.

7. Process of claim 1 , comprising feeding cobalt-bearing materials, slag formers, impure alloy and one or more of copper matte and copper-nickel matte into the converter furnace.

8. Process of claim 1 , wherein the converter furnace is operated in tandem with a smelter.

9. Process of claim 1 , further comprising a smelting step, wherein the one or more of copper matte, copper-nickel matte, and impure alloy are produced in the smelting step.

Assignees

• Umicore Nv

Inventors

• Suetens Thomas
• Van Horebeek David

Classifications

• C22B7/001

  Dry processes · CPC title

• Y02P10/20

  Recycling · CPC title

• Y02W30/84

  Recycling of batteries or fuel cells · CPC title

• C22B23/02 Primary

  by dry processes · CPC title