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Battery disposal has become a topical subject in the UK as we become more aware of the dangers and implications.
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Battery Recycling
Battery Recycling Plant - (Zinc / Alkaline only)
The battery recycling process starts with the batteries being sorted only so far as removing the nickel cadmium and lead rechargeable batteries before they are fed into the shaft furnace.
Here, the waste generated out of battery disposal is raised to temperatures of up to 750°C where a process called "pyrolosis" takes place. At this point, water and mercury is evaporated and organic matter, such as paper, plastic and carton, is burned.
Exhaust gas from this process is re-burned in the afterburner chamber and quenched to destroy dioxins. Through the rapid cooling of the gases, the build-up of dioxins is avoided.
Following this stage, the exhaust gas is washed in several stages while mercury is condensed out and trapped in a wet solid called sludge. This sludge, which contains up to 40% mercury, is then distilled in the mercury-distilling oven where mercury is evaporated, condensed and recovered in its metallic form. Any remaining substances are returned to the initial pyrolosis stage.
After pyrolosis, the batteries are fed into the reduction oven where metal oxides are reduced at temperatures of up to 1500°C. Iron, manganese and nickel remain molten, while zinc, cadmium and lead evaporate and are condensed in the zinc condenser. The zinc can then be poured off into ingots.
Carbon monoxide gas is produced as a by-product and following the condensation of zinc, is washed and fed back to the pyrolosis oven as fuel. Iron and manganese remain in the melting oven and become Ferromanganese that is poured off while non-reduced oxides remain as sludge.
Any wastewater from the exhaust cleaning and dross washing processes are first filtered of solids before being passed onto the wastewater recycling plant. The filtered solids are returned to the pyrolosis stage with the goal of reducing it to its components of usable metal or sludge. In the recycling plant, the water is cleaned of heavy metals, zinc, lead, cadmium, nickel, mercury and copper as well as cyanides and fluorides. After careful analysis, it is drained to sewer. Only the salts from the battery electrolytes, which remain in the wastewater, are "disposed" rather than being recycled.
Mercury-Distillation
Mercury containing wastes are raised to temperatures of up to 500°C where the mercury is vaporised before being condensed in a multistage process. The purity of the mercury is between 99.995% and 99.99995%. The distillation remnants can be treated further or returned to the customer.
Recovered Output
The battery recycling process aims to regain usable raw material from waste products so as to be able to reintroduce them into the production cycle.
The following products are recovered after the battery recycling for re-use:
Ferromanganese, Zinc nuggets, Zinc oxides, Mercury