Dissolution of Mixed Zinc-Carbon and Alkaline Battery Powders in Sulphuric Acid Using Ascorbic/Oxalic Acid as a Reductant

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of ascorbic (C<inf>6</inf>H<inf>8</inf>O<inf>6</inf>) / oxalic (C<inf>2</inf>H <inf>2</inf>O<inf>4</inf>) acid as a reductant for the simultaneous recovery of zinc and manganese from a spent and mixed zinc-carbon and alkaline battery powder in sulphuric acid leaching. The effects of sulfuric acid concentration, ascorbic/oxalic acid dosages, reaction temperature and leaching time on the zinc and manganese dissolutions were investigated according to 2k full factorial experimental design; then, a simple optimization study was carried out for the best reductant. The optimum reductive acid leaching conditions were determined at 3 hours leaching time, 70°C leaching temperature, 0.5M sulfuric acid concentration, 13 g/L ascorbic acid dosage, 1/20 g/mL solid/liquid ratio and 200 rpm stirring speed. Under these conditions, the dissolution efficiencies were 99.9% for Zn and 99.3% for Mn. When our results were compared with the previous results, our findings were better than previous studies. In addition, the manganese dissolution kinetics was undertaken, and the activation energy was found to be 7.04 kJ/mol. Selective precipitations of Zn and Mn from acid solutions were carried out using NaOH and KOH. Using 3M NaOH as precipitating agent at room temperature and at pH 8; 95.4% of Zn and at pH 10; 93.7% of Mn were precipitated from the leaching solution. Under the same conditions, using 3 M KOH at pH 8; 91.6% of Zn and at pH 10, 96.4% of Mn were precipitated. Based on the experimental results obtained, an appropriate flow sheet was proposed to recover zinc and manganese. © 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.