Measurement apparatus and process for sorting used batteries and

Details Measurement apparatus and process for sorting used batteries and Measurement apparatus and process for sorting used batteries and

1992-09-25

1995-07-04

Shah, Mukund J.

Chemistry: electrical current producing apparatus, product, and

With measuring, testing, or indicating means

324239, G07D 316

Patent

active

054298890

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Due to their convenience of use, and also due to the increasing use of portable electrical and electronic apparatus, so-called rechargeable batteries or accumulators have become an established part of everyday domestic life.
These batteries or accumulators are devices for storing chemical energy and converting the chemical energy into electrical energy. Taking into account that their chemical content is rich in heavy metals, at the end of their life these batteries and accumulators have the disadvantage in that they are undesirable in urban garbage and a special treatment is required to remove all of the toxic elements.
Processes envisaged in the field of treatment of used batteries and accumulators must be able to deal with three characteristic aspects of the problem:
Quantitative aspect: the battery/accumulator market is in constant expansion. Today, it is estimated that it is necessary to treat 100 tons of batteries and accumulators per year per million population. One ton of batteries or accumulators represents on average 20,000 to 22,000 units. This treatment capacity should be increased by a factor of 3 by the year 2000.
Qualitative aspect: the complexity of the chemical aspect of the treatment problem can be appreciated from the below-indicated tabulation of the amounts of heavy metals for different batteries and accumulators of the usual types:


______________________________________ Zn MnO.sub.2 Hg Pb Cd Ag Ni Type % % % % % % % ______________________________________ Zinc-Carbon 17 29 0.01 0.1 0.015 -- -- Alkaline 14 22 0.3 0.05 -- -- -- Mercury Batteries 11 -- 33 -- -- -- -- Silver Batteries 10 -- 1 -- -- 10 -- Zn-Air Batteries 30 -- 1 -- -- -- -- Ni--Cd Accu. -- -- -- -- 15 -- 30 ______________________________________
Zinc-carbon and alkaline batteries account for 97% of today's market, and Ni--Cd accumulators vary from 0.5 to 2%. But the latter are expected to increase up to 5% in 3 to 5 years.
Purity aspect: a method of treating used batteries and accumulators is only technically and economically feasible if the resulting products can be recycled as primary products. The value of these recycled products is directly related to their degree of purity.
Different processes for treating used batteries and accumulators have been developed. The technology employed is either the thermic route, or the non-dry route by means of electrolysis. However, for both of these technologies, the minimum purity of the recycled products can only be reached in the absence of foreign elements, or in the presence of a minimal quantity thereof. For instance, thermic or electrolytic processes developed for recycling Ni--Cd accumulators can tolerate only 1% of zinc-based elements (alkaline or zinc-carbon batteries). In the other case, the thermic process used for alkaline or zinc-carbon batteries can tolerate only less than 1% of cadmium batteries.
The treatment of used batteries or accumulators from the public at large involves the problem that it is difficult or even impossible to envisage a selective collection according to the nature of the batteries or accumulators. A method of sorting these collected batteries or accumulators is thus becoming a vital necessity for the subsequent treatment processes.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention concerns a device and a process for analyzing used batteries and accumulators to enable them to be sorted according to their chemical composition. The device and process according to this invention enable used batteries and accumulators to be sorted in a rapid, safe and economical way, whatever may be their state and their composition.
There are several possibilities for determining the chemical composition of a used battery or accumulator, for example measurement of the specific mass. Specifically, a zinc-carbon battery has a specific mass of about 19 g/cm.sup.3, an alkaline battery (Zn--MnO.sub.2) about 3.0 g/cm.sup.3 and a Ni--Cd accumulator about 3.6 g/cm.sup.3. Unfortunately, this difference of specific m

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