Selective reductive leaching of cobalt and lithium from industrially crushed waste Li-ion batteries in sulfuric acid system

Abstract

Recycling of valuable metals from secondary resources such as waste Li-ion batteries (LIBs) has recently attracted significant attention due to the depletion of high-grade natural resources and increasing interest in the circular economy of metals. In this article, the sulfuric acid leaching of industrially produced waste LIBs scraps with 23.6% cobalt (Co), 3.6% lithium (Li) and 6.2% copper (Cu) was investigated. The industrially produced LIBs scraps were shown to provide higher Li and Co leaching extractions compared to dissolution of corresponding amount of pure LiCoO. In addition, with the addition of ascorbic acid as reducing agent, copper extraction showed decrease, opposite to Co and Li. Based on this, we propose a new method for the selective leaching of battery metals Co and Li from the industrially crushed LIBs waste at high solid/liquid ratio (S/L) that leaves impurities like Cu in the solid residue. Using ascorbic acid (CHO) as reductant, the optimum conditions for LIBs leaching were found to be T = 80 °C, t = 90 min, [HSO] = 2 M, [CHO] = 0.11 M and S/L = 200 g/L. This resulted in leaching efficiencies of 95.7% for Li and 93.8% for Co, whereas in contrast, Cu extraction was only 0.7%. Consequently, the proposed leaching method produces a pregnant leach solution (PLS) with high Li (7.0 g/L) and Co (44.4 g/L) concentration as well as a leach residue rich in Cu (up to 12 wt%) that is suitable as a feed fraction for primary or secondary copper production.

Recovery of High-Purity MnO2 from the Acid Leaching Solution of Spent Li-Ion Batteries

“…[4][5][6][7] Moreover, there are currently almost no major recycling technologies available for the recovery of Mn from industrial LIB waste as it is usually composed of both active materials (e.g., NMC) as well as impurities like Al, Fe and Cu. 8 As a result, battery wastes with these types of compositions are distinctly different from other Mn-bearing resources like Mn oxide minerals, 9 alkaline Zn-Mn battery waste 10 and deepsea cores 11 when used as a secondary raw material. Consequently, the current technologies used to recover Mn from primary resources are unsuitable for the recovery of Mn from LIB waste, which, in addition to the relatively low price of Mn (e.g., US$1800-1950 per metric ton for electrolytically produced MnO 2 12 ), further reduces the incentives for improved Mn recovery methodologies.…”

Environmental Sustainability Assessment of Typical Cathode Materials of Lithium-Ion Battery Based on Three LCA Approaches

“…As one heavy metal element, cobalt has higher ecosystem toxicity and pollution capacity than other elements in the four cathode materials. This is why many efforts to recover A are concentrated not only on lithium but also on cobalt [41]. There are two examples of Co substitutes.…”

Sulfation Roasting Mechanism for Spent Lithium-Ion Battery Metal Oxides Under SO2-O2-Ar Atmosphere

“…Currently, the worldwide spent LIB recycling technologies can be classified into hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, or their combination. 9,12 In the hydrometallurgical processes, the spent LIBs first need to be pretreated to enrich the target metals, e.g., by discharging, dismantling, crushing, etc., [13][14][15] and then dissolved into inorganic acids or organic acids. [16][17][18][19][20][21] The resultant Co, Li-rich acidic leaching solution is then subjected to the subsequent purification and recovery process, for instance, chemical precipitation, 22 solvent extraction, 23 or ion-exchange 24 methods.…”