Mixer-settler

Example

See it in the plant

1. Mix and settle: 5544 kg of solution meets an organic extractant in each mixer; in the settler the two liquids separate by density.
2. Extract in turn: at a controlled pH the first stage loads manganese, the second stage loads cobalt and the third stage loads nickel into the organic; the other metals stay in the water.
3. Strip and crystallise: sulfuric acid takes each metal back out of the organic, and crystallisers make MnSO₄ 900 kg, CoSO₄ 986 kg, NiSO₄ 2945 kg.
4. Pass on: lithium stays in the water. 586 kg of raffinate goes to lithium recovery and 127 kg is bled off to stop sodium and sulfate building up.

Use in Lemonergy

Distinguish recovered material from a qualified product.

This is a reference concept. No executable Lemonergy block has been verified for this term.

Connected concepts

Related concepts from the knowledge graph. Connections show context, not cause and effect. Hover or focus a linked term for its definition.

Pregnant leach solution

The solution that leaves the leach carrying the dissolved metals: lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese, with copper, iron and aluminium as impurities. It is filtered from the leach residue and purified before the metals are separated.

Raffinate

The aqueous solution left after solvent extraction has taken out the target metals. In battery recycling it carries the lithium, which is recovered from it last by evaporation and precipitation.

Solvent extraction

Separating metals in the leach liquor by contacting it with an organic phase carrying an extractant that picks up one metal at a time, controlled by pH: manganese, then cobalt, then nickel, leaving lithium in the water. It is how recyclers reach battery-grade sulfates.

References & further reading

Further reading on this topic

These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.

1. Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

   Topic background · Battery construction, recycling routes and U.S. waste-management context.

2. Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles

   Gavin Harper et al. · Nature · 2019

   Topic background · Reuse, disassembly and mechanical, hydro-, pyro- and direct recycling routes.