All about silver button batteries

[Topher_osAUrus]

Man I know google and use it. your posts are not my answers!
I said first crush cells with a crusher and then leach. you say assemble them manually ??? they don't explode this way?!

Rude...

In a crusher they could short and explode.

Disassembling manually is really the best way. But, if you pioneer the way to do bulk lots on a hobby level. You will be set.

 

[saadat68]

OK
Understood
Thank You

It is very bad. I can recovery maximum 1000KG in year this way

 

[anachronism]

Saadat you've got guys on this forum who do this for a living already. I'm one of them. Please trust me when I say that there really are much better things to spend your time on than these batteries if you are looking to recover precious metals.

You have to factor in your own time, and for material like this it's not time well spent when you can pick up better material without really having to try.

I mean this well and please take the genuine advice in the spirit it is intended.

 

[saadat68]

Saadat you've got guys on this forum who do this for a living already. I'm one of them. Please trust me when I say that there really are much better things to spend your time on than these batteries if you are looking to recover precious metals.

You have to factor in your own time, and for material like this it's not time well spent when you can pick up better material without really having to try.

I mean this well and please take the genuine advice in the spirit it is intended.

I can buy cells easier than others like escrap in my country

 

[anachronism]

Sure, I know you can because it's what nobody wants and it's also hazardous waste.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

Thanks Barren. I'm afraid I confused saadat with another member, and failed to notice the language barrier was because he was from Iran.

Saadat, you asked if you could crush all the batteries together instead of sorting them. As Barren has said, crush mean squeezing, or pushing, or pressing them together. If you hit a battery with a hammer, or squeeze it with pliers, you would crush it. This would be dangerous, as lithium batteries might burst into flames or explode, and at the least would expose you to hazardous fumes.

I did not say you should assemble (to put together), or disassemble (to take apart) them manually. You should sort them manually. That means you should separate them into different piles; all the lithium batteries in one pile, all the silver batteries, in another, etc. If you disassemble lithium batteries, yes, they can explode. That's why you need to sort them, and only crush the silver oxide type.

I'm not sure I understand the quantity you have available. In one post, you mentioned 2 tons per year. In a more recent one, you said you could recover 1,000 kg per year. Either way, that's potentially a lot of silver. It will take a lot of work and a lot of chemicals, and it will produce a lot of waste, but it's a lot of silver.

Dave

 

[saadat68]

OK thanks Dave
So you say I must sort silver oxide from lithium cells and then crush with a hammer mill?
How about MnO2 cells ? Any safety risk? (crush Mno2 cells with silver oxide cells)

I can buy 2 ton cells if find a fast way for recovery silver. I want trip to 3 or 4 city and buy cells 8)

 

[Barren Realms 007]

OK thanks Dave
So you say I must sort silver oxide from lithium cells and then crush with a hammer mill?
How about MnO2 cells ? Any safety risk? (crush Mno2 cells with silver oxide cells)

I can buy 2 ton cells if find a fast way for recovery silver. I want trip to 3 or 4 city and buy cells 8)

Please refer to the items as batteries not as cells. When you call them cells it confuses people from other areas of the world that read the forum because they are called batteries and not called cells.

 

[FrugalRefiner]

OK thanks Dave
So you say I must sort silver oxide from lithium cells and then crush with a hammer mill?

I said you need to sort them. I've never processed batteries, so I can't say whether crushing them in a hammer mill is a good idea or not.

How about MnO2 cells ? Any safety risk? (crush Mno2 cells with silver oxide cells)

I don't know. As I said, I don't process batteries. I'm afraid you'll just have to do some studying on your own.

I can buy 2 ton cells if find a fast way for recovery silver. I want trip to 3 or 4 city and buy cells 8)

One of the best pieces of advice Hoke gives is to start small. You don't know how to process these batteries, but you're talking about processing 2 tons per year. I suggest starting with 1 kg. Time how long it takes to sort them. Measure the chemicals you use. Figure out what it will cost to treat the waste. If it seems profitable, try 10 kg. If that works, try 100 kg. Some processes can be scaled up. Some can't. Only you can decide if it works for you.

Dave

 

[saadat68]

OK thanks Dave
So you say I must sort silver oxide from lithium cells and then crush with a hammer mill?
How about MnO2 cells ? Any safety risk? (crush Mno2 cells with silver oxide cells)

I can buy 2 ton cells if find a fast way for recovery silver. I want trip to 3 or 4 city and buy cells 8)

Please refer to the items as batteries not as cells. When you call them cells it confuses people from other areas of the world that read the forum because they are called batteries and not called cells.

Sorry I mean button cells
I think it is better sort all of them and just dissemble silver oxide with a pillar. there is no fast way
http://data.energizer.com/PDFs/alkzincairnomercury_psds.pdf

 

[saadat68]

OK thanks Dave
So you say I must sort silver oxide from lithium cells and then crush with a hammer mill?

I said you need to sort them. I've never processed batteries, so I can't say whether crushing them in a hammer mill is a good idea or not.

How about MnO2 cells ? Any safety risk? (crush Mno2 cells with silver oxide cells)

I don't know. As I said, I don't process batteries. I'm afraid you'll just have to do some studying on your own.

I can buy 2 ton cells if find a fast way for recovery silver. I want trip to 3 or 4 city and buy cells 8)

One of the best pieces of advice Hoke gives is to start small. You don't know how to process these batteries, but you're talking about processing 2 tons per year. I suggest starting with 1 kg. Time how long it takes to sort them. Measure the chemicals you use. Figure out what it will cost to treat the waste. If it seems profitable, try 10 kg. If that works, try 100 kg. Some processes can be scaled up. Some can't. Only you can decide if it works for you.

Dave

OK
Thanks

 

[saadat68]

Many impurities are in my solution like ZnO , MnO2 and some Nickel and copper and ...
Can I get silver purity above 95% with cement and then melting with borax ? or need a silver cell?

Can I sell a 95% silver to shops ?

Edit : Got my answers here
http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=24302&p=257407#p257405

 

[Barren Realms 007]

Many impurities are in my solution like ZnO , MnO2 and some Nickel and copper and ...
Can I get silver purity above 95% with cement and then melting with borax ? or need a silver cell?

Can I sell a 95% silver to shops ?

Edit : Got my answers here
http://goldrefiningforum.com/~goldrefi/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=24302&p=257407#p257405

You are trying to process something that you don't even know if you have a buyer for it. You need to find a buyer and see what they will pay before you start processing this material. Since you are in another country there is no way we can inform you if there would be a buyer of your finished material and what their requirements would be,

 

[saadat68]

How much pure silver do you get from silver oxide batteries ?
Any new feedback ?

 

[patnor1011]

How much pure silver do you get from silver oxide batteries ?
Any new feedback ?

Your answer is right in this thread. It is roughly 1/3 of the weight.

 

[saadat68]

Saadat you've got guys on this forum who do this for a living already. I'm one of them. Please trust me when I say that there really are much better things to spend your time on than these batteries if you are looking to recover precious metals.

You have to factor in your own time, and for material like this it's not time well spent when you can pick up better material without really having to try.

I mean this well and please take the genuine advice in the spirit it is intended.

I must listened to your advice
I was very unskillful

 

[saadat68]

I don't want to distill mercury and work with mercury fumes in my small workshop so I decide switch to wet method that Juan explained in first post.
I think we must review it because we talk about mercury. I think this process has two problem

This is process for removing mercury:

The liquid of the container is a mixture of nitrates(AgNO3,ZnNO3 and HgNO3) but we
have got to recover the mercury first .Add common salt to the liquid and you will get a white precipitate of white clumps
of AgCl and HgCl,stirr well,let settle down,wash with tap water,let settle down again and
pour off the washes.
To the white precipitate add NH4OH until all the white clumps dissolve,you will see at the
bottom there is a black precipitate of Hg(NH2)Cl,filter the liquid,wash the filter and keep
the black powder of Hg(NH2)Cl in a secure and hermetic container to recover the Hg.
To the filtrated liquid add HCl to reprecipitate the AgCl forming the white clumps
again,now free of mercury

Problem 1:
When we add Hcl to silver nitrate solution we get probebly a mix of HgCl2 and Hg2Cl2 with silver chloride
HgNO3 + 2 HCl → HgCl2 + H2O + NO2

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury(II)_chloride

HgCl2 is soluble in water so in washing step we remove some Hg with water. This water has mercury contamination :shock:

Problem 2:
The black residue after adding ammonium hydroxide and washing step is a mix of Hg and Mercuric amidochloride
This is the reaction:
Hg2Cl2 + 2NH3 → Hg + HgNH2Cl + NH4Cl

https://books.google.com/books?id=Vr0aCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA296&lpg=PA296&dq=hgnh2cl+solubility&source=bl&ots=mvKL4AcDSi&sig=KyQx3BFamas6_3zorZOwXiXPUrQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt66vl8tvXAhVH6KQKHZUCD744ChDoAQgjMAA#v=onepage&q=hgnh2cl%20solubility&f=false

Mercuric amidochloride is slightly soluble in cold water and decompose in hot water.

SOLUBILITY IN COLD WATER: 0.14 G/100 CC; SOLUBILITY IN HOT WATER: 100 G/100 CC (DECOMPOSES)
Weast, R.C. (ed.) Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 68th ed. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press Inc., 1987-1988., p. B-108

Ammonium hydroxide has water so some HgNH2Cl will dissolve in water and goes to next step. (participating with silver chloride, converting to metal and melting!)



--------------------
I starting to think distillation is a safer and better method to remove mercury from silver now!!!
--------------------
Thank you

 

[saadat68]

What is best way to wash batteries for removing potassium hydroxide?
This is my process:
Wash with hot water
Let to settle
Decant after one day

But even after 2 days I had very small particles in water. If I want to filter it takes one week for one liter of water!!!

Is there any silver in this water ? It is bright gray from decant step

 

[Watch Repair]

This is my first post.I am mainly indebted with Noxx who made possible this wonderful forum,Mercy Noxx.

I am particularly grateful to Mr. Steven Sackett,with Steve I have learned more about gold recovery than the last twenty years,thanks Steve.

It is a pleasure to give thanks to Harold_V for his advices,sometimes rough but always wise and useful.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Gold Silver Pro,Alfacglobal,Lou and Irons who have supplied information,answered questions or discussed points.

Finally,I tried to make my best shot,my english is not good enough so if I make mistakes,please,let me know.

Best regards

Manuel

MANUEL,

I would like to ask you some questions on the work you have done on a more private level. I am brand new at this and do not know how to set this up.
Basically - I am having some issues on understanding the expected amount of silver per pound for a 100 pound amount.
My current "battery buyer" and I do not agree on the amount of silver to expect.
Thank you in advance Mitch -

 

[Martijn]

from the document:
From my own experience the composition of 1 kilogram of mixed spent button batteries(Li,MnO2 and Ag2O) is:

Manganese dioxide type Lithium type Silver oxide type​

350 gr. 150 gr. 500 gr.
manuel was last active sept.2022. he might not get your message.