Systems and methods for the hydrometallurgical recovery of lead from spent lead-acid batteries and the preparation of lead oxide for use in new lead-acid batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9670565-B2
Application number	US-201414586111-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 30, 2014
Priority date	Jun 20, 2014
Publication date	Jun 6, 2017
Grant date	Jun 6, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure relates generally to recycling lead-acid batteries, and more specifically, relates to purifying and recycling the lead content from lead-acid batteries. A lead recovery system includes a first reactor configured to receive and mix a lead-bearing material and a first carboxylate source to yield a first mixture, wherein the first mixture includes a first lead carboxylate that is dissolved in a liquid component of the first mixture. The system includes a second reactor configured to receive and mix the liquid component of the first mixture and a second carboxylate source to yield a second mixture, wherein the second mixture includes solid particles of a second lead carboxylate. The system includes a third reactor configured to receive and mix the solid particles of the second lead carboxylate and a hydroxide solution to yield a third mixture, wherein the third mixture includes solid particles of lead oxide.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of producing lead oxide from a lead-bearing material, comprising:
leaching the lead-bearing material with a first carboxylate source to generate a leaching mixture that includes a dissolved first lead carboxylate;
separating unleached solids from a liquid component of the leaching mixture;
mixing the liquid component of the leaching mixture with a second carboxylate source to generate a carboxylate exchange mixture that includes solid particles of a second lead carboxylate and the first carboxylate source;
separating the solid particles of the second lead carboxylate from a liquid component of the carboxylate exchange mixture;
mixing the separated solid particles of the second lead carboxylate with a hydroxide solution to generate a hydroxylation mixture that includes solid particles of lead oxide; and
separating the solid particles of lead oxide from a liquid component of the hydroxylation mixture.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first carboxylate source comprises an acetate and the second carboxylate source comprises a citrate.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the separated solid particles of lead oxide consist of tetragonal lead oxide.

4. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
mixing the liquid component of the carboxylate exchange mixture with an acid to yield an acetate/sulfate mixture that includes a liquid component having the first carboxylate source and insoluble impurities;
separating the insoluble impurities from the liquid component of the acetate/sulfate mixture;
separating the first carboxylate source from the liquid component of the acetate/sulfate mixture; and
recycling the separated first carboxylate source to generate the leaching mixture.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein mixing the liquid component of the carboxylate exchange mixture with the acid comprises mixing the liquid component of the carboxylate exchange mixture with sulfuric acid recovered from a spent lead-acid battery.

6. The method of claim 1 , comprising:
mixing the liquid component of the hydroxylation mixture with an antisolvent to yield a recovery mixture that includes solid particles of the second carboxylate source;
separating the solid particles of the second carboxylate source from a liquid component of the recovery mixture;
recycling the solid particles of the second carboxylate source to generate the carboxylate exchange mixture;
separating the liquid component of the recovery mixture to separately recover the antisolvent and the hydroxide solution;
recycling the recovered antisolvent to generate the recovery mixture; and
recycling the recovered hydroxide solution to generate the hydroxylation mixture.

Assignees

• Johnson Controls Tech Co

Inventors

• Spence Matthew A

Classifications

• Y02W30/84

  Recycling of batteries or fuel cells · CPC title

• C22B13/045 Primary

  Recovery from waste materials · CPC title

• H01M10/54

  Reclaiming serviceable parts of waste accumulators · CPC title

• Y02P10/234

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H01M6/52

  Reclaiming serviceable parts of waste cells or batteries {, e.g. recycling} · CPC title