Battery Sorting

Accurate sorting relies on the identification of a number of different properties of a battery. These include the physical size and shape, the weight, the electromagnet properties and any surface identifiers such as colour or unique markings. These properties can be analysed in a number of different combinations in order to sort batteries into nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride, lithium, lead acid, mercuric oxide, alkaline and zinc carbon batteries. Due to an voluntary marking initiative introduced by the european battery industry, it is now also possible to separate the alkaline and zinc carbon cells further into mercury free and mercury containing streams. 

With battery recycling operations ranging in size from 2,000 tonnes per year up to 

000 tonnes per year and battery collection also increasing annually, it is also very evident that high speed is an essential requirement of a successful sorting facility. The third element for successful battery sorting is that the operation must be achievable at low cost. This means that large-scale facilities, in the order of 2 to 3,000 tonnes per shift, which have the added benefit of economies of scale, are preferred to smaller, more costly operations. Such facilities can be operated at a cost not exceeding 150 per tonne. 

One example of such an operation is the Sortbat sorting facility, operated by AVR Holding, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The plant is capable of processing 3,000 tonne per shift per year of post consumer batteries at an accuracy exceeding 99% for critical battery streams. 

Batteries are first loaded via a bunker onto a band conveyor where block batteries, battery packs and non-battery waste are removed and sorted by hand. The batteries selected at this stage are those which are unable to be passed through the electromagnetic sensors in stage IV of the process. These include rechargeable battery packs and industrial batteries. 

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Euro BatTri (2000) Description of an Automatic Industrial Spent Batteries Sorting Unit. Information available from Mr. D.Serre. Euro Bat Tri Sari. BP 734. Rue de la Garenne, 9. F-38297 Saint Quentin Fallavier, Cedex, France... 

Figure 3. Flow diagram illustrating stages II to IV of the Sortbat battery sorting installation...

Other successful battery sorting plants operate in Europe today based on similar principles to the Sortbat model. These include a 1,500 tonne per shift facility owned and operated by Trienekens, Germany, and a 1,000 tonne per year facility at Euro-Bat-Tri, in Lyon France. 

All modem technologies are based on the following phases crashing the battery, sorting non-metal components and treating the metal. The technological differences as to the first and second phases are not so relevant, as such facilities are now well known and easy to get in the market. As to the third phase, possible alternatives are ... 

Battery sorting facilities work according to different procedures. Two of them are presented in brief in the following. 

Figure 19.6 Battery sorting facility. Source EPBA.

Figure 19.7 Processing principle of the battery sorting facility. Source GMA, Schortens.

Prior to smelting, batteries are usually broken up and sorted into their constituent products. Fractions of cleaned plastic (such as polypropylene) case are recycled into battery cases or other products. The dilute sulfuric acid is either neutralized for disposal or recycled to the local acid market. One of the three main smelting processes is then used to reduce the lead fractions and produce lead bullion. 

For new components, the nickel coating is usually 25-250 im thick. Normally, the deposits are not machined. Applications include pump bodies, laundry plates, heat exchanger plates, evaporator tubes, alkaline battery cases and food-handling equipment of various sorts. 

Weeks et al. 1979). Responses of this sort may be due, in part, to compromised immune functions. Studies in animals, using a battery of in vitro and short-term in vivo studies of immunotoxicity following inhalation and oral exposure, may enhance our overall understanding of the effects of hexachloroethane on disease resistance. 

The battery requires two redox couples because it is a cell. Each couple could be thought of as representing half of a complete cell. This sort of reasoning explains why the two redox couples are called half-cells. We could, therefore, redefine a cell as a device comprising two half-cells separated with an electrolyte. 

V. Galvanic Action Electric Currents are those caused when dissimilar metals contact each other directly or thru a conductive medium. For example, when in seismic shooting an aluminum loading pole replaced the heavier wooden pole, two premature explns took place. This happened because the combination of aluminum and its steel casing in the alkaline drilling mud formed a sort of battery... 

Consider the battery in Fig. 7.18. The sodium beta alumina barrier allows sodium ions formed at the anode to Row across to the sulfur compartment, where, together with the reduction products of the sulfur, U forms a solution of sodium trisulfide in the sulfur. The latter is held at 300 CC to keep it molten. The sodium beta alumina also acts like an electronic insulator to prevent short circuits, and it is inert toward both sodium and sulfur. The reaction is reversible. At the present state of development, when compared with lead storage cells, batteries of this sort develop twice the power on a volume basis or four times the power on a weight basis. 

Technological advances have made modern living safer, more convenient, and more efficient. A quick look around us reveals a plethora of devices and gadgets that we rely on every day. These devices wake us, make coffee, deliver IV fluid, and monitor fetal heart rates. Many of these items are electronic in nature and thus require some sort of energy supply such as a wall plug or batteries. Our dependence on electricity has become so heavy that a simple electrical outage can cause extreme hardships, both real and perceived. In this chapter we will explore electrical circuits and the nature of their behavior. 

An electric generator or battery forces electrons into tl e cathode and pumps them away from the anode—electrons move freely in a metal or a semi-metallic conductor such as graphite. But electrons cannot ordinarily get into a substance such as salt the crystalline substance is an insulator, and the electrical conductivity sliowu by the molten salt is not electronic conductivity (metallic conductivity , but is conductivity of a different kind, called ionic conductivity or electrolytic conductivity This sort of conductivity results from the motion of the ions in the liquid the cations, Na+, are attracted by the negatively charged cathode and move toward it, and the anions. Cl , are attracted by the anode and move toward it (Fig. 10-1). 

Modern batteries operate on exactly the same principle, but using different materials. The most common sort have a zinc casing, which forms the negative pole a central carbon rod, which forms the positive pole and are filled with a paste of ammonium chloride, to let the ions flow. 

A particular paragraph is devoted to some specific requirements for FFF cell sorting, such as sample preparation or separator poisoning. The battery of cell population or cell subpopulation characterization methods will be described with an FFF-dependent classification physical methods compared to functional ones. Finally, experimental correlations between functional and physical cell characteristics lead to the isolation of very specific populations, thereby opening the field of cellulomics. In this report, it is assumed that readers have a basic knowledge of separation sciences, in particular, in chromatography and FFF. 

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