The Distribution of Cobalt Between Co-Cu Alloys and Alumina-Saturated MnO-SiO 2 -Al 2 O 3 Slags
- PDF / 1,200,597 Bytes
- 8 Pages / 593.972 x 792 pts Page_size
- 94 Downloads / 174 Views
DUCTION
COBALT, a critical metal, plays important roles in many fields, such as in chemicals, batteries, and high temperature alloys.[1] In recent years, the demand for cobalt has undergone a period of dramatic expansion, driven mainly by the demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) because of their use in new energy automobiles and consumer electronics. China is by far the largest producer of refined cobalt in the world, with a total production capacity of approximately 50 pct of the global output. Nevertheless, the cobalt mineral resource in China is only 1 pct of the cobalt ore deposits worldwide, and China almost entirely depends on imports from Africa. Therefore, the cobalt industry in China has been urged to find alternative cobalt resources.[2] Spent LIBs are undoubtedly one of the potential cobalt resources, due to their high content of cobalt and large volumes.[3] Currently, many technologies have been proposed to recover cobalt from spent LIBs.[4–9] Among them, the combined reduction smelting-hydrometallurgy process is more competitive due to its high production capacity GUOXING REN, LONGGONG XIA, and ZHIHONG LIU are with the School of Metallurgy and Environment, Central South University, Changsha 410083, P.R. China. Contact e-mail: [email protected] SONGWEN XIAO and CAIBIN LIAO are with the Changsha Research Institute of Mining & Metallurgy CO., Ltd, Changsha 410012, P.R. China. Contact e-mail: [email protected]. Manuscript submitted April 12, 2020; accepted October 17, 2020.
METALLURGICAL AND MATERIALS TRANSACTIONS B
and ease of adaptability. In this method, spent LIBs are first smelted to produce a Fe-Ni-Cu-Co alloy and an Al2O3-saturated MnO-rich slag at a high temperature.[7] Then the formed alloy is pulverized by water atomization followed by atmospheric sulfuric acid leaching process. Knowledge of the distribution of cobalt between the alloy and alumina-saturated MnOSiO2-Al2O3 slags is important for an improved understanding of the reduction smelting process. Unfortunately, most data obtained on the activity of CoO in slags involve FeOx-SiO2-based slags or FeOxCaO-based slags corresponding to the smelting of typical ores, such as chalcopyrite and lateritic ores. For example, Wang et al. measured the solubility of cobalt in a silica-saturated FeOx-SiO2 slag by equilibrating the slag with liquid Au-Co and Cu-Co alloys at oxygen partial pressures from 106 to 1010 atm and temperatures of 1523 K, 1573 K, and 1623 K.[10,11] Grimsey and Liu[12] also investigated the solubility of CoO in a silica-saturated FeOx-SiO2 slag by equilibrating the slag with Co-Au-Fe alloys at 1573 K and oxygen pressures of 1010 and 109 atm, and found that the activity coefficient of CoO, referred to solid CoO, remained at a constant value of 0.91. Based on the experimental results of Wang et al.[10,11] Grimsey and Toguri[13] calculated the activity coefficient of CoO in a silica-saturated FeOx-SiO2 slag, and found that the activity coefficient of CoO increased as the concentration of CoO in the slag increased. In addition, Katyal and Je
Data Loading...
