Articulo
Study of a pilot plant for the recovery of metals from spent alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries with biological sulphuric acid and polithionates production
Autor
Thomas, Horacio Jorge
Falco, María Lorena Romina
Di Nanno, María Pía
Martínez, Analía Beatriz Luján
Curutchet, Gustavo Andrés
Institución
Resumen
The recovery of Zn and Mn from spent alkaline and Zn-C batteries with a biohydro-metallurgycal process was studied in a pilot plant that consists in an air lift bio-reactor with a sulfur packed bed where Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans produces an acid-reducing medium; a leaching reactor where the acid-reducing medium is mixed with the battery powder and a recovery reactor where metals are recovered from the leaching liquor by electroly-sis. Results shows that with a 350 mM in proton me-dium produced in 12 days by Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans in the bio-reactor, an extraction of the 100% of Zn and 67% of the Mn present in the bat-tery powder was reached. The presence of polithionates in the medium produced in the bio-reactor allows the dissolution of the manganese. The solid remaining after bioleaching is a manganese oxide. The electrolysis of the leaching liquor pro-duced a cathodic deposit of metallic Zn and an an-odic deposit of a high surphase manganese oxide in one step at room temperature. Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo en Ciencias Aplicadas