Recovery and Separation of Valuable Metals from Spent Nickel-Metal Hydride Batteries using some Organophosphorus Extractants

The separation of cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements from NiMH battery residues is evaluated in this paper. A hydrometallurgical process is developed for the recovery of metals from spent batteries and a selective separation of RE by precipitation of sodium RE double sulfate is performed. The methodology used benefits the solubility of the battery electrode materials in sulfuric or hydrochloric acids. The results obtained show that sulfuric acid is slightly less powerful in leaching (NiMH) compared to HCl acid. However, sulfuric acid was used on economic basis. Leaching solution was obtained by using 3 M H2SO4 at 70 +1 degree C + 3% wt. H2O2 for 5 hours. It has been shown that it is possible to recover about 98 % of the RE contained in spent NiMH batteries. The maximum recovery of nickel and cobalt metals was 99.9% and 99.4%, respectively. The effects of the main operating variables of both leaching and solvent extraction steps of nickel (II) and cobalt (II) from the leach solution using HDEHP (di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid) and CYANEX 272 (di-(2,4,4 trimethyl pentyl) phosphinic acid) in kerosene were investigated aiming to maximize metal separation for recycling purposes. The developed process for the recovery and separation of nickel (II) , cobalt (II), and rare earth from spent NiMH batteries is tested and the obtained sulfate salts CoSO4 and NiSO4 have a high purity, suggesting that these recovered products could be used as chemical materials without further purification