AU651909B2

AU651909B2 - A hydrometallurgical method of producing metallic lead from materials containing oxides, particularly from the active material of accumulators

Info

Publication number: AU651909B2
Application number: AU22196/92A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Roberto Masante; Claudio Serracane
Original assignee: MA IND Inc; MA Industries Inc
Current assignee: MA Industries Inc
Priority date: 1992-09-08
Filing date: 1992-09-08
Publication date: 1994-08-04
Anticipated expiration: 2012-09-08
Also published as: AU2219692A

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

(ORIGINAL)

Int. Class Class Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: Priority Related Art: Name of Applicant: M.A. Industries, Inc.

Actual Inventor(s): Roberto Masante Claudio Serracane Address for Service: PHILLIPS ORMONDE FITZPATRICK Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys 367 Collins Street Melbourne 3000 AUSTRALIA

SOS.

0 55.5 Invention Title: A HYDROMETALLURGICAL METHOD OF PRODUCING METALLIC LEAD FROM MATERIALS CONTAINING OXIDES, PARTICULARLY FROM THE ACTIVE MATERIAL OF ACCUMULATORS Our Ref 304030 POF Code: 1249/184284 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to applicant(s): 6006

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a completely wet hydrometallurgical method of producing metallic lead from a material including lead dioxide and/or metallic lead, particularly from the active material of spent lead accumulators.

The active material of accumulators, which is normally in the form of a paste, is constituted essentially by Pb0 2 Pb, PbSO 4 and organic additives.

In methods of recovering the lead, the lead sulphate is.

normally transformed, in a step known as desulphurisation, into a compound (PbCO 3 PbO, etc.) which can be dissolved during the subsequent steps.

The desulphurised pastes are attacked by an acid solution to remove all the soluble Pb.

Currently all the known methods desulphurise the active material of spent batteries by reacting it with carbonates or hydroxides; the sulphate is changed into a soluble form [Na 2

SO

4

(NH

4 2

SO

4 and removed from the pastes.

The carbonated pastes may be treated by a thermal S"process at fairly low temperatures (800°-9000C) and produce less emissions than untreated pastes because of the absence of oxides of sulphur.

6* Nevertheless, the heat process is still highly polluting and the management of the by-products is difficult.

Alternatives to the pyrometallurgical method are constituted by electrochemical methods of extracting the Pb.

These methods dissolve the Pb compounds in suitable solutions which, when subjected to electrolysis, deposit the Pb on the cathode in the pure metallic form; because this operation takes place in aqueous solution, there are no problems with fumes or dust and the environmental impact is therefore considerably less.

The main problem in treating the pastes by hydrometallurgical methods is constituted by the PbO 2 in the active material of the battery.

In fact PbO 2 is very resistant to attack by the acids normally used in these methods.

Many methods have been proposed for making the PbO 2 soluble and these are hereinafter given in chronological order: o su C.E. Tucker W.C. Smith J.H. Calbeck A.F. Gaumann M.F. Elmore U. Ducati Fracchia in U.S.P. 1,148,062 in U.S.P. 1,752,356 in U.S.P. 1,911,604 in U.S.P. 4,107,007 in U.S.P. 4,118,219 in U.S.P. 4,460,442 in European Patent Application 313153 The methods which propose roasting at high temperatures in a reducing atmosphere suffer from the same problems as the above-mentioned thermal processes (dust, fumes, etc.).

All the wet methods, on the other hand, address the problem by means of reactions which are unsuitable since, in some cases, they lead to the formation of PbSO 4 which has to be sent back to the desulphurisation step and, in other cases, they use up reagents which cannot be regenerated (H202, Pb, NH 4

HSO

3 with the result that production costs are increased.

In order to avoid the problems and disadvantages of the known methods, the subject of the invention is a method of producing metallic lead from a material including lead dioxide and/or metallic lead, including a step for dissolving the lead included in the material and an electrolysis step for the cathodic deposition of the dissolved lead, characterised in that the dissolving step is carried out with the use of an acid electrolyte in the presence of a redox couple having between its oxidised and reduced addtista s, apoentialarh as to reduce the lead dioxide and/or to oxidise the lead and which can be regenerated during the step for the electrochemical deposition of the dissolved lead.

S* The term "reca couple" as used in the present description is intended to include elements or compounds of organic or inorganic origin which exist in oxidised and reduced forms and which have potentials between their two states such as to reduce the PbO 2 and/or oxidise the lead according to the reactions: .o A Pb Pb 2 Ax Ax PbO 2H Pb 2 A 2H20 and which can also be regenerated at the electrodes of a normal electrolytic cell without being co-deposited or degraded.

Preferably, the redox couple includes a metal which has 4 several valency states, such as the elements belonging to the following groups of the periodic table: the Ti group IVB, the V group VB, the Cr group VIB., the Mn group VIIB, the Fe triad group VIII, and the lanthanides.

Of these Ti, V, Ce and Fe have been identified as preferable.

The method is used in particular for producing and recovering Pb from the active material of spent Pb accumulators which typically includes Pb, PbO2 and PbSO 4 In this case, according to a first embodiment, the method includes a first step for desulphurising the active material by carbonation, followed by the treatment of the carbonated pastes with an acid solution of fluoboric, fluosilicic, sulphamic or C -C alkanesulphonic acid.

In this step the reactions which take place are: 1) PbCO 3 2H Pb++ CO 2 2) PbO 2H Pb H2 The PbO and the PbCO3 dissolve very quickly under a wide range of operating conditions.

The acid solution containing the dissolved lead is e* separated from the residue and supplied to the step for the electrochemical deposition of the lead.

The separated residue, which is constituted mainly by PbO2, Pb, and organic substances, is supplied to the subsequent dissolving step.

During this step, the residue is treated again with an acid solution to which a redox pair MeX/MeY (Me x reduced, Me y oxidised), which preferably includes a metal selected from those mentioned above and can reduce the PbO 2 and oxidise the Pb to has been added.

2 2 4 H PbO 2 Me x Me y Pb 2H 2 0 y-x y-x 2 2 Pb Me Pb++ Mex y-x y-x The reactions take place very quickly and at ambient temperature and the added metal is not used up during the process.

Typically, the metal included in the redox couple is added to the electrolyte at a concentration of from 0.01 to 10 M.

The electrolyte used may be an aqueous solution of an acid having the characteristics that: 2+ it can keep a large amount of Pb in solution, it does not react with the redox system, it is not degraded by contact with the electrodes **during the electrolysis stage, and it allows the electrolysis step to be carried out under favourable conditions.

6 Preferably, the acid electrolyte is an aqueous solution of an acid selected from fluoboric, fluosilicic, sulphamic and C 1

-C

4 alkanesulphonic acids at a concentration of up to 800 g/litre. For fluoboric acid in particular, the preferred concentration is from to 500 g/litre.

At this point the solution containing Pb++ and the redox couple Mex/Me y is sent for electrolysis which, as well as depositing lead at the cathode, also re-establishes the correct Mex/Me y ratio according to the reactions: Me Me x (n x y) Pb 2e Pb A redox couple which can be regenerated at the anode of the electrolysis cell may, however, be used.

Alternatively, the redox couple may be regenerated at least partially by putting the electrolyte of the Sdissolving step in contact with metallic lead in series with the electrochemical deposition stage. Scrap lead of low commercial value may to advantage be used for this purpose.

S* Alternatively, the dissolving step in the presence of a redox couple which characterises the present invention may be carried out as the first step of the method of treating the active material of spent accumulators, that is, directly on material which has not been desulphurised and includes PbSO 4 PbO 2 and Pb.

In this case, once the dissolving has been carried out, the acid solution containing dissolved lead and the redox cuple can be supplied directly to the step for the electrochemical deposition of the lead and the sulphurated residue (PbSO 4 can be supplied to the steps for desulphurisation by carbonation and dissolving in acid.

The advantages of the introduction of the electrochemical couplemay be summarised as follows: I. No reagents are used up, and only the electrical energy necessary for re-establishing the pair is used.

II. No undesired elements or compounds are added (e.g.

for the NE 4 HSO3 necessary to reduce the PbO 2 ammonium ions are introduced).

III. No gases are evolved and no foam or spray is therefore formed.

Example: 500 g of carbonated pastes with a Pb content of about 70% (in the form of: PbCO 3 40450%, PbO PbO 2 35-40%, Pb inert substances were placed in contact with 3 1 of spent electrolyte containing: 25 g/l of Pb 175 g/1 of free HBF 4 a After stirring for 1 h and then filtering and washing, this produced 230 g of a residue composed of: Water 17.5% Pb 61.5% (as PbO 2 71%) inert substances 8.2% 8 and 2.91 1 of electrolyte containing: 89 g/1 of Pb 116 g/l of free HBF 4 from which 185 g of metallic Pb were extracted by electrolysis, returning the electrolyte to its initial condition.

The residue (230 g containing 71% of PbO 2 was attacked with 2 1 of a solution containing: g/l of Pb g/l of Ti 3 g/l of free HBF 4 After contact for 15 minutes the mixture was filtered.

The solids were constituted by the inert substances and the solution was sent for electrolysis.

Electrolysis with a 50% average distribution of the S: current between deposition and regeneration produced 140 g of Pb and reduced the Ti 4 to Ti 3 again; the fluoboric solution was thus ready for a subsequent step.

.:The cell used for extracting the Pb included cathodes of Pb or other metals and insoluble anodes.

4 I4)

Claims

1. A method of producing metallic lead from a material including lead dioxide and/or metallic lead, including a step for dissolving the lead contained in the material and an electrolysis step for the cathodic deposition of the dissolved lead,A c 1 -1 the dissolving step is carried out with the use of an acid electrolyte in the presence of a redox couple having, between its oxidised and reduced oxidation states, a poitial sah as to redre the lead dioxide and/or to oxidise the lead, and which can be regenerated during the step for the electrochemical deposition of the dissolved lead.

2. A method according to Claim 1, in which the redox couple,includes a metal which is added to the electrolyte in an appropriate manner and is selected from the metals belonging to the following groups of the periodic table: the Ti group IVB, the V group VB, The Cr group VIB, the Mn group VIIB, the Fe triad group VIII, and the lanthanides.

3. A method according to Claim 2, in which the redox couple includes a metal selected from titanium, vanadium, cerium and iron. e* S

4. A method according to Claim 2, in which the redox couple is regenerated at the cathode during the step for the electrochemical deposition of the lead.

A method according to Claim 2, in which the couple is regenerated at the anode during the step for the electrochemical deposition of the lead.

6. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 3 in which the redox coupleisat least partially regenerated by putting the electrolyte of the dissolving step, including the redox couple, in contact with metallic lead in series with the electrochemical deposition step.

7. A method according to any one of Claims 2 to 6, in which the metal included in the redox couple is added to the electrolyte at a molar concentration of from 0.01 to

8. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 7 in which the electrolyte is an aqueous acid solution including an acid selected from fluoboric, fluosilicic, sulphamic and C 1 -C 4 alkanesulphonic acids at a concentration of up to 800 g/l.

9. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 8 in which the material which is subjected to the dissolving step is derived from the active material of spent lead a accumulators.

10. A method according to Claim 9, including the steps of: desulphurising the active material of spent lead accumulators by carbonation, treating the carbonated active material with an acid solution to dissolve the carbonates, and supplying the undissolved portion to the dissolving step.

11. A method according to Claim 10, in which the 11 treatment is carried out with a solution of an acid selected from fluoboric, fluosilicic, suphamic and C 1 -C 4 alkanesulphonic acids.

12. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 8, in which the material which is subjected to the dissolving step is constituted by the active material of spent lead accumulators and in which the residue of the dissolving step is subjected to desulphurisation by carbonation and subsequent acid treatment.

13. The use of an acid solution to which a metal has been added in the form of a redox couple which has a potential between its oxidised and reduced oxidation 15 states in the method of producing metallic lead defined in Sany one of Claims 1 to 12.

14. A method of producing metallic lead substantially as herein described with respect to any one of the 20 embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings. DATED 3 June 1994 PHILLIPS ORMONDE FITZPATRICK 25 Attorneys for: M.A. INDUSTRIES, INC. 04 7441e 12 ABSTRACT In a method of producing metallic lead from a material including lead dioxide and/r metallic lead, including a step for dissolving the lead contained in the material and an electrolysis step for the cathodic deposition of the dissolved lead, the dissolving step is carried out with the use of an acid electrolyte in the presence of a redox couple which has a potential between its oxidised and reduced oxidation states such as to reduce the lead dioxide and/or oxidise the lead and which can be regenerated during the step for the electrochemical deposition of the dissolved lead. The method is used, in particular, for the production of lead from the active material of spent accumulators. ee *C *C* *.C a.