The BATENUS process for recycling mixed battery waste

The first large-scale battery recycling facility implementing the hydrometallurgical BATENUS technology is expected to go into operation by 1996. The plant will be situated in Schönebeck/Sachsen-Anhalt, and has a projected maximum capacity of 7500 tons of spent batteries per year. The engineering is being carried out by Keramchemie GmbH and the plant will be operated by Batterierecycling Schönebeck GmbH. The BATENUS process was developed by Pira GmbH, a research institute in Stühlingen, Germany, during a period of five years. This new process combines hydrometallurgical operations in a nearly closed reagent cycle that involves electrochemical and membrane techniques. Effluent emissions are minimized to the greatest possible extent. Process validity has been proven in a series of pilot plant testings. After mechanical separation of the casing materials like ferrous and nonferrous metals, paper and plastics, the subsequent hydrometallurgical recovery yields zinc, copper, nickel and cadmium. The other products are manganese carbonate and a mixture of manganese oxide with carbon black. Mercury is immobilized by absorption on a selective ion-exchange resin. The BATENUS process is a master process for the hydrometallurgical reclamation of metals from secondary raw materials. It has found its first application in the treatment of spent consumer batteries (i.e., mixtures of zinc-carbon, alkaline manganese, lithium, nickel-cadmium cells, etc.). As a result of its modular process design, the individual steps can be modified easily and adapted to accommodate variations in the contents of the secondary raw materials. Further applications of this highly flexible technology are planned for the future.