Method for stably separating mother liquor in precursor synthesis
Technical Field
The invention relates to a method for separating mother liquor, in particular to a method for stably separating mother liquor in precursor synthesis.
Background
Because the ternary material has the advantages of low cost, high capacity, good safety performance and the like, the demand and application of the ternary material are gradually increased in the fields of mobile phone batteries, digital products, small power lithium ion batteries and the like, and the ternary material is developed in a blowout manner in the market of the power lithium ion batteries. The ternary precursor material is used as a core raw material of the ternary cathode material, and the demand is increased rapidly.
At present, the main method for industrially preparing the ternary precursor is a coprecipitation method, namely, a nickel salt solution, a cobalt salt solution and a manganese salt solution are used as raw materials, sodium hydroxide is used as a precipitator, ammonia water is used as a complexing agent, the nickel salt solution, the cobalt salt solution and the manganese salt solution are introduced into a reaction kettle together for reaction, and the shape and the granularity of a product are controlled by adjusting the temperature, the time, the pH value, the stirring speed, the solid content and the like.
Indexes for measuring the quality of the ternary precursor are many, wherein three key indexes such as TD, SEM and PSD are greatly influenced by the solid content in the reaction kettle. The solid content is high, the produced ternary precursor product has good sphericity, high density, high anode capacity and good circulation, and the adoption of mother liquor separation to improve the solid content in the reaction kettle becomes a necessary condition for producing the ternary precursor.
However, the conventional mother liquid separation technology has difficulty in achieving an ideal separation effect, and the main reasons are as follows: firstly, the outflow of mother liquor is too fast or too slow, and the liquid level in the kettle is unstable, so that the fluctuation of a reaction system is caused, and the product quality is influenced; secondly, the stirrer is a traditional mechanical seal stirrer, the sealing performance is poor, and slurry is easy to contact with air and oxidize; thirdly, when the filter pipe is blocked, nitrogen gas back blowing is needed, and the consumption of the nitrogen gas is very large.
Based on the above problems, there is an urgent need to develop a method for stably separating mother liquor with low energy consumption and oxidation resistance.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention solves the problems of unstable liquid level in a kettle, too fast or too slow separation of mother liquor, product oxidation and large consumption of nitrogen caused by the separation of slurry mother liquor in the prior precursor synthesis process, provides a method for stably separating the mother liquor in the precursor synthesis process, ensures the stability of the liquid level in the kettle and the stable reaction in the kettle, isolates air and avoids the product oxidation, thereby ensuring the product quality.
The technical scheme of the invention is as follows: a method for stably separating mother liquor in precursor synthesis comprises a reaction kettle, a slurry pump, a mother liquor separator, a mother liquor pump, a mother liquor tank, a slurry tank and a discharge valve which are connected in sequence; the mother liquid separator comprises an end socket, an upper shell, a separation plate and a lower shell; the upper part of the seal head is provided with an air inlet, and the upper part of the air inlet is provided with an exhaust valve; the upper end of the upper shell of the mother liquid separator is connected with the seal head, and the lower end of the upper shell is hermetically connected with the lower shell through the partition plate; the lower shell is internally provided with a microporous pipe, and the bottom of the lower shell is provided with a stirrer; the isolating plate is provided with a small hole, and the outlet end of the microporous pipe penetrates through the small hole and is fixed on the isolating plate; a mother liquor outlet is arranged on one side of the upper shell and is connected with a mother liquor pump inlet; the outlet of the mother liquid pump is connected with the mother liquid tank; the upper part of the lower shell is provided with a feed inlet which is connected with the outlet of a slurry pump, and the inlet of the slurry pump is connected with the reaction kettle; the lower part of the lower shell is provided with a slurry outlet which is connected with the top of the reaction kettle through a discharge valve; the bottom of the lower shell is provided with a discharge hole, and the discharge hole is connected with a slurry tank; the method comprises the following steps:
step 1, starting a reaction kettle, enabling raw materials to flow in parallel from the top of the reaction kettle, and increasing the liquid level in the reaction kettle along with the addition of the raw materials;
step 2, starting a slurry pump after the liquid level meets the requirement of separating mother liquor, and enabling the slurry to enter a mother liquor separator from the reaction kettle through the slurry pump;
step 3, starting a mother liquid separator stirrer, adjusting the opening of a discharge valve, keeping the liquid level in the reaction kettle stable, and gradually raising the liquid level in the mother liquid separator;
step 4, when the liquid level of the mother liquid separator overflows the mother liquid outlet, opening a valve from the mother liquid outlet to the mother liquid tank, starting the mother liquid pump, and enabling the mother liquid to flow into the mother liquid tank;
step 5, setting the rotating speed of the mother liquor pump, and adjusting the opening of the discharge valve to keep the liquid levels in the reaction kettle and the mother liquor separator stable;
and 6, continuously feeding until the particles D50 in the reaction kettle meet the target requirement, stopping feeding, and closing the mother liquor pump and the slurry pump.
According to the method for stably separating the mother liquor in the precursor synthesis, the air inlet is also connected with the compressed air or nitrogen storage tank, and the mother liquor separator can be subjected to back flushing, so that the blockage of a microporous pipe is avoided.
In the method for stably separating the mother liquor in the synthesis of the precursor, when back flushing is carried out, a valve from a mother liquor outlet to a mother liquor tank is closed, a valve from a compressed air or nitrogen storage tank to an air inlet is opened, and back flushing is started; and (5) after the back flushing is finished, closing a valve from the compressed air or nitrogen storage tank to the air inlet, and repeating the step 3 to the step 5.
According to the method for stably separating the mother liquor in the precursor synthesis, the back flushing is set to be 1-2 h for one time of blowing, and the back flushing time is 1-3 s.
According to the method for stably separating the mother liquor in the precursor synthesis, when the pressure difference between the upper shell and the lower shell reaches a set value, back flushing is started.
The method for stably separating the mother liquor in the synthesis of the precursor adopts compressed air or nitrogen to perform back flushing, and the pressure is 0.01-0.02 MPa.
According to the method for stably separating the mother liquor in the synthesis of the precursor, the upper part of the upper shell is also provided with the hot pure water inlet, so that the device can be washed, and material accumulation caused by long-term use is avoided.
According to the method for stably separating the mother liquor in the synthesis of the precursor, the stirrer is a magnetic stirrer and is positioned on one side of the bottom of the lower shell, and the stirrer inclines for 5-20 degrees towards the central line of the lower shell, so that the joint of the stirrer and the lower shell has better sealing performance, bottom sediments are favorably stirred, and accumulation of particles is avoided.
According to the method for stably separating the mother liquor in the synthesis of the precursor, the discharge hole at the bottom of the lower shell is also connected with the outlet of the slurry pump, so that on one hand, the device can be discharged to avoid the accumulation of the bottom of the material, and on the other hand, the device can be used for performing back flushing feeding to avoid the blockage of the feed hole.
According to the method for stably separating the mother liquor in the precursor synthesis, the flow meter is arranged at the mother liquor outlet, the mother liquor pump is connected with the flow meter and the raw material feeding amount by adopting the PLC, the flow rate of the mother liquor pump is set and monitored by the flow meter, the frequency of the mother liquor pump is adjusted at any time according to the fluctuation of the flow rate of the flow meter, and the stable output of the mother liquor is ensured.
In the method for stably separating the mother liquor in the precursor synthesis, the emptying valve is a self-standing regulating valve, and the pressure before the valve is set to be 0.02 MPa.
The invention has the beneficial effects that: according to the invention, a bottom feeding mode is adopted, after slurry enters the lower shell, along with the rise of liquid level, mother liquor in the slurry enters the upper shell through the microporous pipe and flows out through the mother liquor outlet, and solid materials are left in the lower shell, so that the effect of separating the mother liquor is achieved; compared with the prior art, the method has the following advantages:
firstly, a magnetic stirrer is obliquely arranged, on one hand, an obliquely upward circulating flow is formed in a lower shell of the mother liquid separator, slurry is prevented from arching and depositing between upper microporous pipes and depositing at the bottom, and the uniformity and stability of a high-solid-content two-phase system state in the mother liquid separator are maintained; on the other hand, the slurry is completely isolated from the outside air, so that the risk of oxidizing the material when the stirrer is sealed by using a traditional machine is eliminated;
on one hand, when the blockage of the microporous pipe is cleaned, the upper shell is pressurized by using nitrogen or compressed air, so that the mother liquor in the upper shell reversely flows to the lower shell through the microporous pipe, and the aim of flushing the microporous pipe is fulfilled; on the other hand, the clear liquid of the upper shell completely isolates the slurry of the lower shell from the outside, thereby avoiding the possibility of oxidizing the slurry and ensuring the quality of the product;
flow stabilization: on one hand, the mother liquor pump is related to the flowmeter and the raw material feeding amount by adopting a PLC, the frequency of the mother liquor pump is adjusted at any moment according to the fluctuation of the flowmeter flow by setting the flow of the mother liquor pump and monitoring the flowmeter, and the stable mother liquor output amount is ensured; on the other hand, after the clear liquid enters the upper shell, the clear liquid can flow out after reaching the liquid level of the mother liquid outlet, and the upper shell also has the effect of stabilizing the flow, so that the control of the liquid level in the reaction kettle is facilitated;
high-precision flow control: the fluctuation of the mother liquid separation flow in the prior art is about +/-200L/h, and the method can not be applied to small-flow precision control, can accurately control the fluctuation of the mother liquid separation flow to +/-1L/h, and can be applied to large-flow precision control and small-flow control;
the invention can accurately control the liquid outlet flow of mother liquor to be consistent with the total flow of feeding, maintain the liquid level in the reaction kettle to be highly stable, and ensure the volume of the whole reaction system to be constant, thereby ensuring the reaction process to be constant, uniform and ordered, and the solid content in the kettle is linearly increased once to obtain the product with high particle tap density and good consistency when synthesizing a precursor in the reaction kettle;
the invention also has the advantages of simple process, convenient operation, low investment, quick effect and the like. The invention can be widely applied to the mother liquor separation process, in particular to the process for stably separating the mother liquor in the synthesis of the precursor.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a process flow diagram of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the mother liquor separator of the present invention.
In fig. 1-2, 1 is a mother liquor pump, 2 is a flow meter, 3 is a mother liquor separator, 4 is a slurry pump, 5 is a reaction kettle, 6 is a discharge valve, 7 is an emptying valve, 301 is a seal head, 302 is a hot pure water inlet, 303 is a mother liquor outlet, 304 is a feed inlet, 305 is a stirrer, 306 is a discharge port, 307 is a slurry outlet, 308 is a microporous tube, 309 is a lower shell, 310 is a partition plate, 311 is an upper shell, and 312 is an air inlet.
Detailed Description
Referring to the attached figures 1-2, a method for stably separating mother liquor in precursor synthesis comprises a reaction kettle 5, a slurry pump 4, a mother liquor separator 3, a mother liquor pump 1, a mother liquor tank, a slurry tank and a discharge valve 6 which are connected in sequence; the mother liquid separator comprises a seal head 301, an upper shell 311, a partition plate 310 and a lower shell 309; the upper part of the end socket is provided with an air inlet 312, and the upper part of the air inlet is provided with an exhaust valve 7; the upper end of the upper shell of the mother liquid separator is connected with the seal head, and the lower end of the upper shell is hermetically connected with the lower shell through the partition plate; a microporous pipe 308 is arranged in the lower shell, and a stirrer 305 is arranged at the bottom of the lower shell; the isolating plate is provided with a small hole, and the outlet end of the microporous pipe penetrates through the small hole and is fixed on the isolating plate; a mother liquor outlet 303 is arranged on one side of the upper shell and is connected with an inlet of a mother liquor pump; the outlet of the mother liquid pump is connected with the mother liquid tank; the upper part of the lower shell is provided with a feed inlet 304, the feed inlet is connected with the outlet of a slurry pump, and the inlet of the slurry pump is connected with the reaction kettle; the lower part of the lower shell is provided with a slurry outlet 307, and the slurry outlet is connected with the top of the reaction kettle through a discharge valve; the bottom of the lower shell is provided with a discharge hole 306 which is connected with a slurry tank; the method comprises the following steps:
step 1, starting a reaction kettle, enabling raw materials to flow in parallel from the top of the reaction kettle, and increasing the liquid level in the reaction kettle along with the addition of the raw materials;
step 2, starting a slurry pump after the liquid level meets the requirement of separating mother liquor, and enabling the slurry to enter a mother liquor separator from the reaction kettle through the slurry pump;
step 3, starting a mother liquid separator stirrer, adjusting the opening of a discharge valve, keeping the liquid level in the reaction kettle stable, and gradually raising the liquid level in the mother liquid separator;
step 4, when the liquid level of the mother liquid separator overflows the mother liquid outlet, opening a valve from the mother liquid outlet to the mother liquid tank, starting the mother liquid pump, and enabling the mother liquid to flow into the mother liquid tank;
step 5, setting the rotating speed of the mother liquor pump, and adjusting the opening of the discharge valve to keep the liquid levels in the reaction kettle and the mother liquor separator stable;
and 6, continuously feeding until the particles D50 in the reaction kettle meet the target requirement, stopping feeding, and closing the mother liquor pump and the slurry pump.
The other embodiment is different in that the air inlet is also connected with a compressed air or nitrogen storage tank, and the mother liquid separator can be subjected to back flushing to avoid blockage of the microporous pipe.
The difference of another embodiment is that when back flushing is carried out, a valve from a mother liquor outlet to a mother liquor tank is closed, a valve from a compressed air or nitrogen storage tank to an air inlet is opened, and back flushing is started; and (5) after the back flushing is finished, closing a valve from the compressed air or nitrogen storage tank to the air inlet, and repeating the step 3 to the step 5.
The difference of another embodiment is that the back flushing is set to 2h for one time and the back flushing time is 3 s.
The difference of another embodiment is that the back flushing is set to 2h for one time and the back flushing time is 1 s.
The difference of another embodiment is that the back flushing is set to 1h for one time and the back flushing time is 3 s.
The difference of another embodiment is that the back flushing is set to 1h for one time and the back flushing time is 1 s.
Another embodiment is different in that the back flushing is also started when the pressure difference between the upper housing and the lower housing reaches a set value.
The difference of the other embodiment is that the pressure when the compressed air or the nitrogen is used for back flushing is 0.01 MPa.
The difference of another embodiment is that the pressure when the compressed air or nitrogen is used for back flushing is 0.015 MPa.
The difference of the other embodiment is that the pressure when the compressed air or the nitrogen is used for back flushing is 0.02 MPa.
The difference of another embodiment is that the upper part of the upper shell is also provided with a hot pure water inlet 302, which can wash the device and avoid material accumulation caused by long-term use.
The other embodiment is different in that the stirrer is a magnetic stirrer and is positioned on one side of the bottom of the lower shell, and the stirrer inclines 5-20 degrees towards the central line of the lower shell, so that the joint of the stirrer and the lower shell has better sealing performance, the stirring of sediment at the bottom is facilitated, and the accumulation of particles is avoided.
The difference of another embodiment lies in that the drain hole of its casing bottom still meets with the thick liquids pump outlet, can carry out the blowing to the device on the one hand and avoid the material bottom to pile up, on the other hand also can avoid the feed inlet to block up with the help of it carries out the recoil feeding.
The other embodiment is different in that a mother liquor outlet is provided with a flowmeter 2, the mother liquor pump is related to the flowmeter and the raw material feeding amount by adopting a PLC, the mother liquor pump is subjected to flow setting and flowmeter monitoring, the frequency of the mother liquor pump is adjusted at any time according to the fluctuation of the flow of the flowmeter, and the stable mother liquor output is ensured.
Another embodiment differs in that the evacuation valve is a self-contained regulator valve, with a pre-valve pressure set at 0.02 MPa.