JP3053022B2 - Waste battery treatment equipment - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a waste battery processing apparatus for treating a discarded dry battery without polluting it.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, when processing a discarded dry battery, it is either buried in the soil at a specific disposal site and discarded, burned, or dissolved by chemical treatment.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, according to the conventional disposal method for waste batteries as described above, particularly when the batteries are mercury batteries, mercury and the like leach from the batteries buried in the ground, causing environmental pollution. There was a problem of doing. Further, a large amount of fuel and chemicals are required for the combustion treatment and the chemical treatment, which has a disadvantage that the cost is increased. Moreover, it is difficult to completely eliminate the leached mercury and the like by the conventional combustion and chemical treatment methods, and it has been impossible to prevent the problem of environmental pollution at all.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has a simple structure, in which a waste dry battery can be completely burned and melted to render it pollution-free, thereby preventing any problem of environmental pollution. The purpose is to provide.

[Means for solving the problem]

A waste dry battery processing apparatus according to the present invention is provided with a processing tank filled with a liquid or a gas, a dry battery holding member installed in the processing tank to store and hold a waste dry battery, and provided to face the dry battery holding member. It is provided with three or more electrodes, and a polyphase AC power supply for applying a voltage of each phase of the polyphase power supply to each of these electrodes and generating an arc between the electrodes.

[Action]

In the present invention, the waste battery held by the battery holding member is heated at a high temperature by, for example, an arc generated between the three electrodes to which the voltage of each phase of the three-phase power supply is applied,
It is instantaneously burned and melted and decomposed into mercury vapor and other gases and metal particles or ceramics. The mercury vapor is taken out of the treatment tank, cooled to take out mercury, and the metal particles or ceramic are dropped to the bottom of the water tank from the through-hole formed at the bottom of the waste dry battery holding member and collected at the bottom of the water tank. , Can be recycled.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 to 3 show a waste dry battery processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 and 2, a dry cell holding member 2 is provided substantially horizontally in a water tank 1 filled with water 20. Both sides of the dry cell holding member 2 are covered with a water tank via a shielding plate 3. 1 is fixed to the inner surface of the side wall. The shielding plate 2 is inclined so as to descend toward the outside, and has a large number of through holes 3a. Also, a large number of through holes 2a are formed at the bottom of the dry battery holding member 2. Further, the bottom of the water tank 1 is inclined so as to descend toward the center so that the decomposition products fall toward the center,
A plurality of discharge pipes 4 are provided at the center thereof, and a lid 5 is provided on the lower surface of the discharge pipe 4 so as to be freely inserted and removed.
Below, a container 16 for disposal is provided. In the container 16
17 is a metal powder such as iron, zinc, copper, brass, etc., and 18 is mercury. A cover 6 is provided on the upper part of the water tank 1.

An exhaust pipe 10a for discharging mercury vapor is provided above the water tank 1.
A return pipe 10b for returning a part of the mercury to the water tank 1 is provided, 11 is a motor for sucking mercury vapor, 12 is a liquefaction container for liquefying mercury vapor, and 14 is a mercury storage part thereof.

A waste battery 7 to be treated is housed and held in the dry battery holding member 2, and a plurality of sets of three electrodes 8 are provided at a position facing the dry battery 7. This electrode 8
Are electrodes constituting a multi-phase multi-electrode arc generating means described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-177879, filed by the present applicant, and are composed of three non-consumable electrodes 8a, 8b, 8c such as carbon. Each electrode is connected to the output of each phase of a three-phase power supply 9 which is star-connected as shown in FIG. Then, a voltage of each of the three phases is applied to each electrode 8, and a plurality of arcs, that is, a multi-arc, is generated between the tips of the electrodes.

Here, the multi-arc generated by the present multi-phase electrode arc generator has the following features.

An ultra-high-temperature arc with negative electron ions is generated regardless of whether it is in air, liquid, or vacuum.

Since a heat source of 4000 ° C or higher can be obtained at the same time as the switch is turned on, high melting point substances can be melted and melted.

Since a rotating magnetic field is generated at the tip of the electrode, an electric stirring action on the irradiation target can be expected.

The number of phases and the number of electrodes can be increased by a multiple of 3, and the electrode diameter can be increased, and the load current can be increased to process a large-capacity substance in a short time.

Uses three-phase, six-phase, etc., each phase alternating current, the total current of each phase is always 0, and no ground wire is required, so the plasma arc is a non-transitional type that does not require a counter electrode such as a counter electrode, Accordingly, since it is not necessary to use a material other than metal as a counter electrode, a refractory having no conductivity can be directly heated, sintered, and melted.

By providing a neutral electrode at the center of the plurality of electrodes, a stronger plasma arc is generated.

Instead of providing the above-mentioned neutral electrode, a solvent, a gas, or the like can be released from the central portion.

 Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

The waste dry battery 7 is stored in the dry battery holding member 2, the three-phase power supply 9 is turned on, and the voltage of each of the three phases is applied to each of the three electrodes 8. That is, a multi-arc is generated. The power of this multi-arc is enormous, it produces a powerful flame, and the water feels like it's swirling around it. Although not shown in this embodiment, three electrodes 8a, 8b, 8c
In addition, a neutral electrode connected to the ground wire of the three-phase AC power supply may be provided, for example, at the center of the three electrodes or below the three electrodes. However, this multi-arc does not generate an arc without the neutral electrode. This is a characteristic, and if there is a ground wire, this ground wire may be thin. Here, an arc is generated even without a neutral electrode because the multi-arc uses a three-phase AC power supply, and the sum of the arc currents of the respective phases is always zero. Therefore, in the present multi-arc generator, the problem of three-phase imbalance does not occur.

By such a multi-arc, the dry cell 7 can be instantly reduced to about 40
Heated to a high temperature of 00 ° C or higher, it is completely burned and decomposed into mercury vapor and metal particles such as iron, zinc, copper, and brass. The mercury vapor is discharged to the outside through an exhaust pipe 10, and when passing through the liquefaction container 12, the mercury vapor is cooled and liquefied by means such as spraying water on the container 12, and the mercury storage portion 14 It is collected. The vapor that has not been liquefied is returned to the water tank 1 again, moves upward in the water 20 through the through-hole 3a of the shielding plate 3 in the water tank 1, and is discharged again by the exhaust pipe 10.

On the other hand, iron that has been decomposed by the high-temperature combustion,
Metal powders such as zinc, copper, brass, etc., fall down through the through holes 2a formed in the bottom of the dry battery holding member 2 and further fly over the upper portion of the holding member 2 are formed on the shielding plate 3. Through the through-hole 3a, the water is collected in the discharge pipe 4 at the bottom of the water tank 1. When the accumulated metal powder accumulates to a certain extent, the lid 5 is pulled out, and the metal powder 17 is transferred into the waste container 16,
The container 16 is removed by inserting the lid 5, and the metal powder 17 and mercury 18 therein can be discarded or separately recycled.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, not only the tips of the electrodes 8a, 8b, and 8c are directed to the discarded batteries 7 in the battery holding member 2, but also the battery holding member 2 is cooled by water 20. Therefore, the dry battery holding member 2 itself is not disassembled together with the waste dry battery 7 by the high temperature of about 6000 ° C.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the waste dry battery 7 is heated to an extremely high temperature by the multi-phase multi-electrode arc, completely burned and melted, decomposed into mercury vapor and ceramic and metal particles, discharged, and recycled. With this configuration, it is possible to perform pollution-free treatment, which is extremely advantageous from the viewpoint of preventing environmental pollution.

In the above embodiment, the multi-phase multi-electrode arc generating means is 3
Although a three-phase electrode is used, a three-phase six electrode, a six-phase six electrode, or the like may be used.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a waste dry battery is burned at an extremely high temperature by a multi-phase multi-electrode multi-arc to be decomposed into mercury vapor and ceramics and metal particles, and then disposed or recycled. Therefore, it is possible to completely eliminate the pollution, and to obtain an effect that it is extremely useful from the viewpoint of preventing environmental pollution.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a waste dry battery processing apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a main part thereof, and FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of the multi-phase multi-electrode arc generating means of the above embodiment. is there. In the figure, 1 is a water tank, 2 is a dry battery holding member, 21a is a through hole, 7 is a dry battery, 8a, 8b, 8c are electrodes, 9 is a three-phase power supply, 10a
Is an exhaust pipe, 10b is a return pipe, 11 is a motor, 12 is a liquefaction container, 14 is a mercury storage unit, 16 is a waste container, 17 is metal powder, 18
Is mercury. In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A processing tank filled with a liquid or a gas, a dry cell holding member installed in the processing tank for storing and holding a waste dry battery, and a position facing the dry cell held on the dry cell holding member. A multi-phase power supply comprising three or more provided electrodes and a multi-phase AC power supply for applying each phase of the multi-phase AC power supply to each of the three or more electrodes to generate a plurality of arcs between the electrodes; A waste dry battery processing apparatus comprising a multi-electrode arc generating means. 2. The waste dry battery treatment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said treatment tank has means for liquefying mercury vapor obtained by decomposing said dry battery and recovering it as mercury. 3. The waste dry battery according to claim 1, wherein said dry battery holding member has a through hole at a bottom portion thereof, and ceramic and metal particles obtained by disassembling said dry battery fall below said through hole. Processing equipment. 4. The processing tank is provided with means for collecting, discharging or recycling ceramic and metal particles obtained by disassembling the dry battery at the bottom thereof.
The waste dry battery treatment device according to the above.