Joint recovery of graphite and lithium metal oxides from spent lithium-ion batteries using froth flotation and investigation on process water re-use

Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier LtdSpent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) contain critical raw materials that need to be recovered and recirculated into the battery supply chain. This work proposes the joint recovery of graphite and lithium metal oxides (LMOs) from pyrolyzed black mass of spent LIBs using froth flotation. Since flotation is a water-intensive process, the quality of the aqueous phase directly impacts its performance. In pursuit of an improved water-management strategy, the effect of process water recirculation on black mass flotation is also investigated. The fine fraction (<90 µm) of the black mass from pyrolyzed and crushed spent LIBs was used. After flotation, 85% of the graphite in the overflow product and 80% of the LMOs in the underflow product were recovered. After flotation with 8 wt% solids, the process water contained about 1,000 mg/L Li and accumulated up to 2,600 mg/L Li after three cycles. The flotation with process water showed no significant impact on the recovery and grade of flotation products, suggesting the feasibility of water recirculation in black mass flotation.Peer reviewe

New Approach of Metal Substrate Fabrication for Metal-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Metal-supported fuel cells (MSCs) offer a high cost advantage over pure ceramic solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Based on the very good thermal shock stability of MSCs, these systems can be heated up quickly. They have a long endurance in temperature range of 680 up to 800 °C due to their good redox stability and excellent mechanical properties. Although worldwide intensive efforts have been done to realize MSCs, there is no reproducible and at the same time cost-efficient manufacturing technology established. The production of the metal substrate via the modification of metal powders and a tape casting process resulted in an efficient co-production for the first time. Both, the adaptation of the shrinkage or sintering behavior to the ceramic components and the targeted adjustment of the porosity, can be achieved by presented manufacturing route. The combination of powder modification followed by further processing in tape casting process into metal layers is an innovative approach for the production of cost-effective and reproducible metal substrates for metal-supported cells (MSCs). By using metal powders from a high energy milling process and adjusting the shrinkage of metal powder mixtures to the shrinkage of the ceramic electrolyte layer, short process times can be achieved with just a few manufacturing steps. The milling and shaping process also leads to low process costs, low reject rates and is suitable for large scales. At the same time, the porosity of the metal substrates can be adjusted by mixing powders from different milling stages. The tape casting process also allows the adjustment of the desired layer thickness of a few 100 microns and further lamination leads to an interface formation to the ceramic layer

Data from a pilot plant experiment for the processing of a complex tin skarn ore - 19.11.2018

This data set derives from a pilot plant campaign for the beneficiation of a complex tin bearing skarn ore, including different separation and classification steps. The aim of the pilot plant test work was to prove a flowsheet that had been developed based on detailed geometallurgical analysis and results from the research projects AFK (Aufbereitung feinkörniger Komplexerze, BMBF grant number 033R128) and FAME (European Union grant 641650) to produce a cassiterite concentrate for tin production, and further preconcentrates for iron, zinc, copper, indium, and arsenic. The tin mineralization is partially well localized in cassiterite, but also partially finely disseminated and thus unrecoverable as minor components in other minerals. The iron is located in magnetic and nonmagnetic iron oxides sometimes intergrown with cassiterite. Therefore, iron concentrates are recovered at larger grain sizes but need a further tin recovery step not implemented in the reported experiment. The other elements are mainly deported in sulfides, which are bulk recovered in a flotation step. A subsequent selective flotation is needed to recover them individually. This selective flotation is, however, not part of the reported experiment. The two tin concentrates recovered from the shaking table should be considered as preconcentrates, that can be enriched further e.g. through multi-stage gravity separation. The motivation for this data set is to provide a consistent basis for the application of new particle based geometallurgical methods enabled by automated mineralogy (e.g. Buchmann et al. 2018; Schach et al. 2019; Buchmann et al. 2020; Pereira et al. 2020). In addition, it should also allow for the comparison and evaluation of different analytical methods, which were used during the pilot plant experiments to generate a validated data set for the whole plant and to correlate different result from various methods. This is the basis for further investigations enabling the application of various analyzing methods in a synergetic way. Those synergies can help in the future to compensate drawbacks of certain methods by an adequate combination of multiple approaches. This repository includes raw data and processed data from November 19, 2018. The following data is included: X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF) X-ray diffraction (XRD) Automated Mineralogy (MLA) The balanced mass flows and element/mineral grades for the XRF- and the MLA data External certified analysis including different inductive coupled plasma (ICP) and XRF methods from ALS R scripts for the mass balance Please find further information in the "supplementary information" fil