Rechargeable portable battery differentiation based on electrical characterization

The collected portable battery waste contains any of alkaline, zinc-carbon or rechargeable Ni-MH batteries. Separating and sorting batteries of different chemistries is an essential part of the recycling process to obtain reduced costs of raw mineral recovery processes and higher purity minerals. This paper presents the extension of the work previously done, where zinc-carbon and alkaline batteries were separated using electrical characterization [1]. The study is extended to differentiate rechargeable Ni-MH batteries from non-rechargeable alkaline and Zinc-Carbon batteries. The work focuses on two approaches: Impedance analysis and charge – self discharge techniques, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods