The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 14, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 03, 1999
Jussi Rastas, Fin-02700 Kauniainen, FI;
Pekka Saikkonen, Fin-00360 Helsinki, FI;
Other;
Abstract
The invention relates to a method for recovering non-ferrous metals, particularly nickel, cobalt, copper, zinc, manganese and magnesium, from materials containing said metals by converting said non-ferrous metals into sulphates by means of melt and melt coating sulphation, i.e. by a thermal treatment under oxidizing conditions within a temperature range of 400 to 800° C., during which a reaction mixture is formed containing at least one said non-ferrous metal, iron(III)sulphate and alkali metal sulphate, and appropriate reaction conditions are selected to substantially prevent iron(III)sulphate from thermally decomposing to hematite, and finally, said non-ferrous metals are recovered as metallic compounds. In the method of the invention, a process is formed around the melt and melt coating sulphation, which comprises nine steps. The invention is particularly characterized by the manner of pelletizing the material to be fed into step 2 with an alkali metal (Na, K) sulphate—sulphuric acid—water solution, during which the hematite (Fe,O,) contained in the feed material will at a suitable temperature react with sulphuric acid and form hydrous iron(III)sulphate which together with sodium sulphate also acts as the bonding agent required in the pelletizing.