Reactor systems for recovering metals, and related methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019352742-A1
Application number	US-201916524429-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 29, 2019
Priority date	Sep 3, 2015
Publication date	Nov 21, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of recovering metals from electronic waste comprises providing a powder comprising electronic waste in at least a first reactor and a second reactor and providing an electrolyte comprising at least ferric ions in an electrochemical cell in fluid communication with the first reactor and the second reactor. The method further includes contacting the powders within the first reactor and the second reactor with the electrolyte to dissolve at least one base metal from each reactor into the electrolyte and reduce at least some of the ferric ions to ferrous ions. The ferrous ions are oxidized at an anode of the electrochemical cell to regenerate the ferric ions. The powder within the second reactor comprises a higher weight percent of the at least one base metal than the powder in the first reactor. Additional methods of recovering metals from electronic waste are also described, as well as an apparatus of recovering metals from electronic waste.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A reactor system for recovering metals from a material, the reactor system comprising:
a plurality of reactors having a material comprising a plurality of metals; a first electrochemical cell comprising a first electrolyte; and a first leaching vessel including a first leachate formulated to dissolve at least one metal from the material; wherein each reactor of the plurality of reactors is configured to be placed in fluid communication with each of the first electrochemical cell and the first leaching vessel while the material remains within each respective reactor of the plurality of reactors.

2 . The reactor system of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises a powder.

3 . The reactor system of claim 1 , wherein the first electrolyte comprises ferric ions and ferrous ions.

4 . The reactor system of claim 1 , wherein the first leachate comprises a thiosulfate.

5 . The reactor system of claim 1 , further comprising a second leaching vessel including a second leachate formulated to dissolve, from the material, at least another metal different from the at least one metal.

6 . The reactor system of claim 1 , further comprising a second electrochemical cell configured to be placed in fluid communication with each reactor of the plurality of reactors, the second electrochemical cell including a second electrolyte formulated to dissolve, from the material, at least another metal different from the at least one metal.

7 . The reactor system of claim 1 , wherein the material comprises:
at least one of zinc, tin, lead, nickel, copper, and silver; and at least one of gold and palladium.

8 . A method of recovering metals from a material, the method comprising:
contacting, with a first electrolyte, a material within a first reactor in fluid communication with a first electrochemical cell to dissolve at least one base metal from the material into the electrolyte; contacting, with the first electrolyte, a material within a second reactor; recovering, from the electrolyte, the at least one base material in the first electrochemical cell; and after contacting the material within the first reactor with the first electrolyte, placing the first reactor in fluid communication with a leaching vessel including a leachate formulated to dissolve at least one precious metal from the material while the material remains in the first reactor.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein placing the first reactor in fluid communication with a leaching vessel including a leachate comprises placing the first reactor in fluid communication with a leaching vessel including a leachate formulated to dissolve gold from the material.

10 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising placing a third reactor in fluid communication with the first electrochemical cell after placing the first reactor in fluid communication with the leaching vessel.

11 . The method of claim 8 , further comprising placing the first reactor in fluid communication with a second electrochemical cell comprising a second electrolyte after placing the first reactor in fluid communication with the leaching vessel.

12 . The method of claim 8 , wherein recovering, from the electrolyte, the at least one base material in the first electrochemical cell comprises recovering one or more of zinc, copper, or nickel in the first electrochemical cell.

13 . A method of recovering metals from a material, the method comprising:
separating magnetic components from nonmagnetic components of a material; exposing the magnetic components to a solution comprising hydrochloric acid to dissolve rare earth elements in the hydrochloric acid; adding a sulfate to the solution to precipitate double salts of the dissolved rare earth elements and form rare earth element double salts; and after forming the rare earth element double salts, exposing the rare earth element double salts to a hydroxide to form a rare earth element hydroxide.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein adding a sulfate to the solution comprises adding potassium sulfate, sodium sulfate, or a combination thereof to the solution.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein exposing the rare earth element double salts to a hydroxide comprises exposing the rare earth element double salts to sodium hydroxide to form the rare earth element hydroxide.

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein exposing the magnetic components to a solution comprising hydrochloric acid to dissolve rare earth elements in the hydrochloric acid comprises exposing the magnetic components to the solution in an anaerobic environment.

17 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising purging oxygen from a vessel including the solution.

18 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
powderizing the nonmagnetic components to form a powder; providing a first reactor including the powder and a second reactor comprising the powder; passing an electrolyte from an electrochemical cell to the first reactor, from the first reactor to the second reactor, and from the second reactor to the electrochemical cell to dissolve one or more of copper, nickel, lead, tin, or zinc from the powder in each of the first reactor and the second reactor.

19 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising placing the first reactor out of fluid communication with the electrochemical cell and in fluid communication with a leaching vessel comprising a leachate comprising hypochlorite, a bromine-containing solution, a bromide-containing solution, or a cyanide solution.

20 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising:
placing the first reactor out of fluid communication with the electrochemical cell and in fluid communication with a leaching vessel including a leachate comprising a thiosulflate; and reducing dissolved silver in the leachate by cementation.

Assignees

• Battelle Energy Alliance Llc

Inventors

• Lister Tedd E
• Parkman Jacob A
• Diaz Aldana Luis A
• Clark Gemma
• Dufek Eric J
• Keller Philip

Classifications

• C25C1/14

  of tin · CPC title

• C25C1/12

  of copper · CPC title

• C25C1/16

  of zinc, cadmium or mercury · CPC title

• C25C1/18

  of lead · CPC title

• C25C1/20

  of noble metals · CPC title