APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR RECYCLING OF USED ZINC-CARBON AND ALKALINE BATTERIES

摘要

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for recovering valuable metals from spent batteries. An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for recycling spent zinc-carbon batteries and alkaline batteries, which can reduce transportation cost by treating spent batteries through physical and chemical processes in one place with a batch treatment and efficiently recover valuable metals using an eddy current separator, a dust collector and a cooler without generating pollutants. The apparatus comprises: a dust collection means for sucking dust generated in crushed spent batteries; a magnetic separation means for separating magnetic materials from the crushed spent batteries; a size separation means for sorting nonmagnetic materials in the crushed spent batteries according to size; an eddy current separation means for separating zinc and carbon rods from the nonmagnetic materials larger than a given size, passed through the size separation means; and a recovering means for recovering valuable metals from the nonmagnetic materials smaller than a given size, passed through the size separation means. The method comprises: sucking dust generated in spent batteries; separating magnetic materials from the crushed spent batteries; sorting nonmagnetic materials in the crushed spent batteries according to size; separating zinc and carbon rods from the nonmagnetic materials larger than a given size using an eddy current; forming powder by drying the nonmagnetic materials smaller than a given size in an electric furnace; and leaching zinc by adding the powder to an alkaline leaching solution.