• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.53-60
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• 2021

Leaching experiments from single metal and metallic mixtures were conducted to develop a process for the recovery of cobalt, copper, and nickel in spent lithium ion batteries. Inorganic and organic acid solutions without oxidizing agents were employed. No copper was dissolved in the absence of an oxidizing agent in the leaching solutions. The leaching condition to completely dissolve single metal of cobalt and nickel was determined based on acid concentration, reaction temperature and time, and pulp density. The leaching condition to dissolve all of cobalt and nickel from the metallic mixtures was also obtained. Leaching of the metallic mixture with methanesulfonic acid led to selective dissolution of cobalt at low temperatures.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.36-42
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• 2021

Spent lithium-ion batteries are treated by reduction-smelting at high temperatures to recover valuable metals. Solvent extraction and precipitation of the HCl leaching solution of reduction-smelted metallic alloys resulted in a filtrate containing Ni(II) and a small amount of Si(IV). Adsorption and precipitation experiments were conducted to recover pure Ni(II) compounds from the filtrate. Si(IV) was selectively loaded onto polyacrylamide, but this method did not efficiently filter the solution due to an increase in viscosity. The addition of Na₂CO₃ as a precipitant to the filtrate led to the simultaneous precipitation of Ni(II) and Si(IV). However, it was possible to recover nickel oxalate with a purity higher than 99.99% by selectively precipitating Ni(II) with the addition of Na₂C₂O₄ as a precipitant.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.73-80
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• 2022

Reduction smelting of spent lithium-ion batteries at high temperature produces metallic alloys. Following solvent extraction of the leaching solutions of these metallic alloys with either sulfuric or hydrochloric acid, the raffinate is found to contain Ni(II), Co(II), Mn(II), and Si(IV). In this study, two cationic exchange resins (Diphonix and P204) were employed to investigate the loading behavior of these ions from synthetic sulfate and chloride solutions. Experimental results showed that Ni(II), Co(II), and Mn(II) could be selectively loaded onto the Diphonix resin from a sulfate solution of pH 3.0. With a chloride solution of pH 6.0, Mn(II) was selectively loaded onto the P204 resin, leaving Ni(II) and Si(IV) in the effluent. Elution experiments with H₂SO₄ and/or HCl resulted in the complete recovery of metal ions from the loaded resin.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.28-35
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• 2021

An experiment was conducted to separate or recover Co and Ni using Cyanex 301 from process by-products and waste resources containing Co and Ni. To separate and recover Co and Ni from simulated leaching solutions, 10 v/v% Cyanex 301 was used as an extractant in this study; Li was not extracted. At equilibrium pH 1.5 and a phase ratio (A/O) of 1.0, 0.44% of Mg and 11.57% of Mn were extracted, and more than 99% of Co and Ni were extracted. McCabe-Thiele diagram analysis confirmed that more than 99.9% of Co and Ni could be extracted simultaneously through two-stage extraction with an extraction phase ratio (A/O) of 2. It was possible to extract Mg and Mn simultaneously through the scrubbing process. In the scrubbing process, more than 99% of Mg and 87% of Mn were scrubbed using 0.05 M of H₂SO₄, and 99.9% of Mg and more than 80% of Mn were scrubbed using 0.05 M of HCl. In the stripping process, 93% of Co and 5% of Ni were stripped selectively by 3.0 M of H₂SO₄. However, when 8.0 M of HCl was used as a stripping solution, more than 99.9% of Co and more than 90% of Ni were stripped simultaneously.