PHYSICAL SEPARATION OF CRUSHED PRODUCT OF WASTE NICKEL-METAL HYDRIDE BATTERIES FROM HYBRID VEHICLES

摘要

The number of hybrid vehicles is increasing and this is causeing an increase in waste nickel-metal hydride batteries. The cathode activating agent of batteries is made of nickel hydroxide and the anode activating agent is an alloy of nickel and rare earth elements. Conventional rotary kiln methods cannot recover the rare earth elements, and hydrometallurgical treatment of crushed product consumes large volumes of agent. The physical separation of the anode alloy from the cathode hydroxide would make it possible to reuse the alloy. The authors have reported separation of anode and cathode components in the large size fractions using a newly developed dry magnetic separation method. Wet magnetic separation has been applied to the powder fraction and about 90% anode purity was achieved. This paper reviews experimental results from previous publications and proposes an integrated treatment process for crushed nickel-metal hydride batteries.