Spent or decommissioned accumulator treatment plant and process
AssigneeEngitec Technologies S.P.A.
InventorGianfranco Diegoli
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A spent and/or decommissioned accumulator treatment plant and process, wherein a plurality of objects originating from separate waste collection of spent and/or decommissioned accumulators, nominally comprising lead-acid accumulators and accumulators and objects of a different type, are subject to an X-ray scan. If an analysis of the X-ray scan indicates that an object is not a lead-acid accumulator, and in particular is a lithium-ion battery or accumulator, it is deviated out of the treatment workflow, that comprises grinding the objects and separating lead from other materials.
Claims18
A spent and/or decommissioned accumulator treatment plant, comprising:
- a grinding mill;
- at least one separator stage of lead from other materials downstream of the mill;
- and
- a sorting device upstream of the mill,
- wherein the sorting device is configured to receive a plurality of objects originating from a separate waste collection of spent and/or decommissioned accumulators and configured to deviate, from a treatment workflow, objects other than lead-acid accumulators so that the objects other than lead-acid accumulators do not enter the mill,
- wherein the sorting device comprises an X-ray detector configured to perform an X-ray scan of the plurality of objects and a processor configured to analyze, for each object, whether the X-ray scan indicates that it is not a lead-acid accumulator,
- wherein the X-ray detector comprises an X-ray source configured to emit a radiant beam, and at least one array of X-ray detecting elements arranged in a predetermined position within a path of the radiant beam emitted by the X-ray source,
- wherein the X-ray source is a dual emission X-ray source, capable of also emitting a second radiant beam at different energy with respect to the radiant beam, or the X-ray detector comprises at least one second X-ray source configured to emit a second radiant beam at different energy with respect to the radiant beam, and
- wherein the at least one array of detecting elements is a dual exposure detector, or the X-ray detector comprises at least one second array of X-ray detecting elements,
- the dual exposure detector or the at least one second array of X-ray detecting elements being arranged in a predetermined position within a path of the second radiant beam, and
- wherein a current image representative of the X-ray scan of at least one portion of object is a false color image.
A method for treating spent and/or decommissioned accumulators, the method comprising:
- a) feeding a plurality of objects originating from separate waste collection of spent and/or decommissioned accumulators to a treatment plant, the objects nominally comprising lead-acid accumulators and accumulators and objects of a different type,
- b) grinding objects of the plurality of objects,
- c) separating lead from other materials subsequently to step b),
- wherein, previous to step b):
- i) subjecting the plurality of objects to an X-ray scan, and
- ii) analyzing, for each object, whether the X-ray scan indicates that the object is not a lead-acid accumulator and, in an affirmative case, deviating the object out of the treatment operating sequence;
- and, in a negative case, forwarding the object to step b),
- wherein the analyzing of step ii) comprises analyzing a false color current image representative of the X-ray scan of at least one portion of object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.