TWM603622U - Battery recycling equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

The battery recycling equipment of the present invention is used to decompose multiple batteries. The battery recycling equipment includes a motor, a tank, a low temperature material, a crusher and a grinding wheel. The battery is put into the tank. The low temperature material is used to rapidly freeze the battery. The crusher is used to squeeze the rapidly frozen battery. The grinding wheel is connected to the motor, and the grinding wheel is used to grind the rapidly frozen battery. Among them, the temperature of low-temperature materials is not higher than -40°C.

Description

Battery recycling equipment

The new model relates to a battery recycling equipment, especially a battery recycling equipment with low-temperature materials.

Nowadays, lithium battery recycling technologies are divided into two categories: dry treatment (dry metallurgy) and wet treatment (hydrometallurgy). They mainly extract and refine metal elements such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese in the positive electrode plate. Please refer to Figure 1A. Figure 1A shows a schematic block diagram of dry metallurgy. After the dry metallurgy is collected from the recycling station, the waste lithium batteries are first grouped according to the size and type of the battery pack or battery cell, and then the high temperature It is recycled after melting and sintering. Lithium batteries that have not been fully discharged are discharged first, and the metal structure of the battery and the outer casing are manually removed until the battery core is left. After that, the battery cell cutting procedure will be carried out. This discharge procedure can avoid the danger of burning or explosion due to pyrolysis during incineration. The battery core after discharge shelling and cutting is introduced into the incinerator and processed at a high temperature of about 700~800℃. During the treatment process, metals such as Co, Ni, Fe, Al, etc. are respectively recovered by the difference in melting point and specific gravity. The lithium metal escapes in the form of lithium oxide (Li2O), and then reacts with water (H2O) and sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) to form lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) for recovery. However, due to the high hardness of the battery cell itself, it consumes a lot of energy during the cutting process, applying 200-300 joules of energy per square centimeter. In addition, the use of a fire source for heating will reduce the recovery rate of useful substances, and it is also easy to cause explosions and fires and produce toxic gases. Please refer to Fig. 1B. Fig. 1B shows a schematic block diagram of the hydrometallurgical method. The hydrometallurgical method mainly uses an inorganic acid solution as a treatment liquid, and extracts the components to be recovered in the waste battery before purifying and recycling. The wet metallurgy method and the dry metallurgy method require the discharge treatment, shelling and cutting procedures of the lithium battery. After that, put the battery core fragments into the absorption chamber and spray with inorganic acid solution. After that, the electrolyte and lithium metal components (lithium salt solution) contained in the lithium battery are extracted and absorbed, and the remaining residues are separated according to the characteristics of various metals, and purified for regeneration. However, before the operation of the hydrometallurgical method, a large amount of manual labor is required to separate the battery core body from other auxiliary components, and the hydrometallurgical method also consumes a lot of chemicals. In addition, because lithium batteries are sprayed with a large amount of inorganic acid solutions, the waste generated by them is highly pollutant and needs to be processed before being discarded. Therefore, how to design a solution that can improve the above-mentioned problems is worth considering for those with ordinary knowledge in this field.

The purpose of the present invention is to provide a battery recycling device, which can reduce energy consumption, increase the recovery rate of useful substances, and will not produce high pollutants to harm the ecological environment. The battery recycling equipment of the present invention is used to decompose multiple batteries. The battery recycling equipment includes a motor, a tank, a low temperature material, a crusher and a grinding wheel. Among them, the battery is put into the tank. Low temperature materials are used to quickly freeze the battery. The crusher is used to squeeze the rapidly frozen battery. The grinding wheel is connected to the motor, and the grinding wheel is used to grind the rapidly frozen battery. Among them, the temperature of low-temperature materials is not higher than -40°C. In the above battery recycling equipment, the low temperature material can be nitrogen, helium or dry ice. In the above battery recycling equipment, wherein the crusher squeezes the battery with an energy greater than 4-6 joules per square centimeter. The aforementioned battery recycling equipment further includes a pushing mechanism. After the battery is squeezed by the crusher, the pushing mechanism is used to push the battery. In order to make the above-mentioned features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and understandable, a detailed description is given below of preferred embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Please refer to FIGS. 2A and 2B. FIG. 2A shows a flowchart of the battery recycling method 20 of this embodiment, and FIG. 2B shows a schematic diagram of the battery recycling device 10 of this embodiment. The battery recycling method 20 and the battery recycling device 10 of this embodiment are used for decomposing and recycling a plurality of batteries 8. The types of the batteries 8 are, for example, lithium iron phosphate batteries, lithium manganese oxide batteries, or ternary lithium batteries. Among the above, the recovery method in this case is mainly to recover the battery 8. However, those skilled in the art can know that the recycling method of this case can also be used to decompose and recycle multiple battery packs (the battery pack includes battery cells, circuit boards, and protective boards) or multiple battery cells. Please refer to FIG. 2B again. The battery recycling device 10 of this embodiment includes a motor 13, a tank 12, a low-temperature material 16, a crusher 15, a grinding wheel 14 and a pushing mechanism 17. The motor 13 is connected to grinding The grinding wheel, the pushing mechanism 17 is arranged on one side of the tank body 12, and the grinding wheel 14 is arranged in the tank body 12. The tank body 12 includes an introduction hole 120, and the low temperature material 16 is poured into the tank body 12 through the introduction hole 120 In addition, the temperature of the low-temperature material 16 is not higher than -40°C, and the low-temperature material 16 is, for example, nitrogen, helium, or dry ice. It is worth noting that the battery recycling method 20 of this embodiment runs in conjunction with the battery recycling device 10 of this embodiment, and the battery recycling method 20 includes the following steps. First, referring to step S21, a plurality of batteries 8 are provided, and these batteries 8 are all batteries, battery packs or batteries to be discarded and recycled. After that, referring to step S21, the batteries 8 are grouped according to their size and type. Specifically, the battery 8 with a larger volume is divided into one group, and the battery 8 with a smaller volume is divided into another group. In addition, they are grouped according to different types. For example, lithium iron phosphate batteries belong to the first group, lithium manganate batteries belong to the second group, and ternary lithium batteries belong to the third group. In this way, it is beneficial to subsequent screening or recovery of similar materials. After that, referring to step S23, put the grouped batteries 8 into the tank 12 of the battery recovery device 10. For example, first put the third group of ternary lithium batteries into the tank 12. After that, referring to step S24, the low-temperature material 16 is put into the tank 12 to rapidly freeze the battery 8. In detail, use industrial nitrogen, helium or dry ice that has not been warmed up or is being warmed up into the tank 12 from the inlet 120. After standing for half an hour, the low-temperature material 16 will slowly warm up (from -192 °C to -40°C) to allow the low temperature in the tank 12 to diffuse to the cells inside the battery 8. As a result, the cells of the battery 8 cannot output power (between -40°C and -60°C, the power that the cells can output is zero), so the battery 8 can be safely destroyed in the subsequent steps. After that, referring to step S25, the rapidly frozen battery 8 is squeezed and ground. In detail, when the temperature of the battery 8 is lower than Tk (the critical transition temperature between toughness and brittleness), the toughness of its constituent materials that can receive impact and absorb energy is significantly reduced, and the battery 8 changes from a tough state to a brittle state. Therefore, compared to the traditional cutting procedure that consumes a lot of energy (200~300 joules), the crusher 15 of this embodiment only needs more than 4~6 joules per square centimeter to squeeze the battery 8, and it can The structure of the battery 8 is destroyed. After that, the pushing mechanism is used to push the battery 8 of the destroyed structure, so that the battery 8 of the destroyed structure is moved to the surface of the grinding wheel 14. After that, under the rapid rotation of the motor 13, the grinding wheel 14 will grind the battery 8 with the damaged structure. In this way, the battery 8 will be broken into a plurality of fragments, and the length of the fragments is about 2 to 3 mm or greater than 3 mm. After that, when the battery 8 is broken into a plurality of small pieces, the material can be screened or ground into smaller material powder for subsequent processing by the metallurgical factory. In summary, since the battery recycling method 20 does not add chemicals, the waste generated by it only needs to be simply screened and separated. In addition, the battery recovery method 20 does not use fire source heating, so the recovery rate of useful substances in the battery 8 can be improved. In addition, without using a fire source for heating, the battery 8 will not explode or catch fire, will not generate toxic gases, and will not degrade materials (some materials may be burned at high temperatures, such as plastic). Please refer to FIG. 3, which shows a flowchart of a battery recycling method 30 according to another embodiment. The difference between the battery recycling method 30 and the battery recycling method 20 is that the battery recycling method 30 also includes a process of adding water to warm up. Please refer to step S36. After the battery 8 is squeezed and ground, an aqueous solution is added to the tank 12. In this way, the inside of the tank body 12 will be warmed to 0°C or room temperature to make the fragments of the battery 8 increase the degree of material fragmentation, and the "water" can be recycled for the electrolyte after being collected. Moreover, the aqueous solution can greatly reduce the Ph value of the electrolyte in the recovered material and take away the acidic solution of the residual material, reducing environmental hazards. It is worth noting that step S36 is not an absolutely necessary procedure, and its only advantage is to accelerate the return to room temperature, and then continue the next working procedure. In summary, the battery recycling method 20 of this embodiment and the battery recycling device 10 can reduce energy consumption, increase the recovery rate of useful substances, and will not produce high pollutants that harm the ecological environment. In addition, since the battery recovery method 20 is a rapid cooling method, the processing time is very short, which can greatly reduce manpower input, improve the safety of disassembling batteries, and have high input, output and material recovery rates. Although the present invention has been disclosed in the preferred embodiments as above, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone with ordinary knowledge in the relevant technical field can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of this new model shall be subject to the scope of the attached patent application.

8: battery 10: Battery recycling equipment 12: tank 120: lead-in hole 13: Motor 14: Grinding wheel 15: Crusher 16: Low temperature materials 17: Moving agency 20, 30: Battery recycling method S21~S25: steps S36: Step

Figure 1A shows a block diagram of the dry metallurgy method. Figure 1B shows a block diagram of the hydrometallurgical method. FIG. 2A shows a flowchart of the battery recycling method 20 of this embodiment. FIG. 2B shows a schematic diagram of the battery recycling device 10 of this embodiment. FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of a battery recycling method 30 according to another embodiment.

8: battery

10: Battery recycling equipment

12: tank

120: lead-in hole

13: Motor

14: Grinding wheel

15: Crusher

16: Low temperature materials

17: Moving agency

Claims (4)

A battery recycling device is used to decompose multiple batteries. The battery recycling device includes: A motor A tank, the battery is put into the tank; A low-temperature material to quickly freeze the battery; A crusher for squeezing the rapidly frozen battery; and A grinding wheel connected to the motor, the grinding wheel is used to grind the battery after the rapid freezing; Among them, the temperature of the low-temperature material is not higher than -40°C. In the battery recycling equipment described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, the low-temperature material is nitrogen, helium or dry ice. The battery recycling device described in item 1 of the scope of patent application, wherein the crusher squeezes the battery with an energy greater than 4-6 joules per square centimeter. The battery recycling device described in item 1 of the scope of the patent application further includes a pushing mechanism. After the crusher squeezes the battery, the pushing mechanism is used to push the battery.

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