Recovery of manganese oxides from spent alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries. An application as catalysts for VOCs elimination.

Manganese, in the form of oxide, was recovered from spent alkaline and zinc-carbon batteries employing a biohydrometallurgy process, using a pilot plant consisting in: an air-lift bioreactor (containing an acid-reducing medium produced by an Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans bacteria immobilized on elemental sulfur); a leaching reactor (were battery powder is mixed with the acid-reducing medium) and a recovery reactor. Two different manganese oxides were recovered from the leachate liquor: one of them by electrolysis (EMO) and the other by a chemical precipitation with KMnO4 solution (CMO). The non-leached solid residue was also studied (RMO).