Selective Acidic Leaching of Spent Zinc-Carbon Batteries Followed by Zinc Electrowinning

• Published in: Metallurgical and materials transactions. B, Process metallurgy and materials processing science Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 38 - 47
• Main Authors: Shalchian, Hossein, Rafsanjani-Abbasi, Ali, Vahdati-Khaki, Jalil, Babakhani, Abolfazl
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.02.2015; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Batteries; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Density; Design engineering; Electrowinning; Leaching; Manganese; Materials Science; Metallic Materials; Metallurgy; Nanotechnology; Recovering; Structural Materials; Sulfuric acid; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Zinc; MnO2; Pulp Density; Sulfuric Acid Concentration; Response Surface Methodology; Current Efficiency
• ISSN: 1073-5615; 1543-1916
• DOI: 10.1007/s11663-014-0216-7

In this work, a selective acidic leaching procedure was employed for recycling zinc from spent zinc-carbon batteries. Leaching experiments were carried out in order to maximize zinc recovery and minimize manganese recovery in diluted sulfuric acid media. Response surface methodology and analysis of variance were employed for experimental design, data analysis, and leaching optimization. The experimental design has 28 experiments that include 24 main runs and four replicate in center point. The optimal conditions obtained from the selective acidic leaching experiments, were sulfuric acid concentration of 1 pct v/v, leaching temperature of 343 K (70 °C), pulp density of 8 pct w/v, and stirring speed of 300 rpm. The results show that the zinc and manganese recoveries after staged selective leaching are about 92 and 15 pct, respectively. Finally, metallic zinc with purity of 99.9 pct and electrolytic manganese dioxide were obtained by electrowinning.