BATTERY RECYCLING BY HYDROGEN GAS INJECTION IN LEACH

The present invention relates to a process for the recovery of transition metals from batteries comprising (a) treating a transition metal material with a leaching agent to yield a leach which contains dissolved salts of nickel and/or cobalt, (b) injecting hydrogen gas in the leach at a temperature above 100 °C and a partial pressure above 5 bar to precipitate nickel and/or cobalt in elemental form, and (c) separation of the precipitate obtained in step (b).