The subject of the invention is device for disposal of lithium and alkaline batteries that are not suitable for further use.

Lithium batteries are made of various materials, such as metals, plastics, and hydroxides. Both small and large alkaline batteries are similarly made and designed. They are composed of a plastic housing, cobalt, lithium and graphite compounds and lithium salts acting as an electrolyte.

There are known methods of recycling of lithium batteries where smelting is used and they are widely applied by Umicore, the Belgian recycling company, and Glencore, the British-Swiss cobalt supplying company, which is able to recover more than 90% of cobalt, nickel and copper from batteries.

In Asia, hydrometallurgical processes are the preferred recycling method. The copper is separated and processed efficiently along with the aluminum. The recycling rates for other materials are considered very high, at the level of min. 98%.

However, the recycling rate is not the same as purity. For nickel and cobalt, the purity is usually very high because the materials are recovered as sulphates.

There are also known methods of pyrolytic pretreatment of batteries and their further treatment by the abovementioned methods.

According to the invention device for disposal of lithium batteries is characterized by the fact that in the sense that in the housing on the carrying platform, under the hopper there is a grinding mill, under which there is a belt conveyor, the outlet of which is located above the water/acid tank. An openwork basket inside the tank, raised and lowered on the winch mounted above the tank. Next to the tank there is a tub with the flushing agent, above the tub there is an outlet of the conduit with air from the blower. Next to the tub there is a conveyor belt, the outlet of which is located at the entrance to the heated screw conveyor, and the outlet of the mill is located at the final processing station of the recyclable plastic melt.

The air supply line from the blower is placed above the heated screw conveyor.

The carrying platform with the housing is built on a wheeled or tracked chassis.

The recycling device allows for quick recycling of used batteries at the place of their disassembly. The entire recycling process can be carried out automatically, without the need to control individual operations.

The device according to the invention is shown in a schematic drawing illustrating the device in a mobile version, built on a wheeled chassis. As shown in the drawing, on the platform (3) there is a housing (7) where all the battery recycling units are located. The housing has a hopper (1) through which the batteries are fed. Under the hopper (1) there is a mill (14) where the batteries are thrown, cut and crushed into fine particles. From under the mill (14), the ground particles are collected by a belt conveyor (2) and from it they are dropped into an openwork basket (6) suspended on the ropes (5) of winches (4) and placed in a water/acid tank (17). Next to the acid tank (17) there is a tub (12) with the flushing liquid. After dissolving the metals in the fragmented particles of the battery in acid and chemically neutralizing the electrolyte, the basket (6) is pulled upwards, then it is moved over the tub (12) and there it is lowered on the ropes (5). The residue is rinsed, the acid is neutralized and after that the basket (6) lifts again from the tub (12), the ground plastic particles are dried in the air stream supplied over the tub (12) through the conduit (8), compressed by the compressor (9). The air in the conduit (8) is heated by the waste heat from the screw conveyor (15). The dried particles are poured onto the conveyor belt (16), the outlet of which is located at the entrance to the screw feeder (15). The screw feeder (15) is heated to the temperature at which the plastic melts, there the charge is compacted and fed to the post-processing station, in this example to the mold (11), where the press (10) extrudes the plastic parts. The solution in the tank (17) undergoes known chemical or electrochemical treatments to recover pure metal. As the platform (3) is built on wheels (13), the device can be quickly transported to the panel disassembly site and there, after the initial dismounting of the disassembled batteries, their automatic recycling can be carried out.