Sustainable recovery of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries using DL-malic acid: Leaching and kinetics aspect

Abstract

An eco-friendly and benign process has been investigated for the dissolution of Li, Co, Ni, and Mn from the cathode materials of spent LiNiCoMnO batteries, using DL-malic acid as the leaching agent in this study. The leaching efficiencies of Li, Co, Ni, and Mn can reach about 98.9%, 94.3%, 95.1%, and 96.4%, respectively, under the leaching conditions of DL-malic acid concentration of 1.2 M, hydrogen peroxide content of 1.5 vol.%, solid-to-liquid ratio of 40 g l, leaching temperature of 80°C, and leaching time of 30 min. In addition, the leaching kinetic was investigated based on the shrinking model and the results reveal that the leaching reaction is controlled by chemical reactions within 10 min with activation energies (Ea) of 21.3 kJ·mol, 30.4 kJ·mol, 27.9 kJ·mol, and 26.2 kJ·mol for Li, Co, Ni, and Mn, respectively. Diffusion process becomes the controlled step with a prolonged leaching time from 15 to 30 min, and the activation energies (Ea) are 20.2 kJ·mol, 28.9 kJ·mol, 26.3 kJ·mol, and 25.0 kJ·mol for Li, Co, Ni, and Mn, respectively. This hydrometallurgical route was found to be effective and environmentally friendly for leaching metals from spent lithium batteries.

Kinetic Modelling of the Coproduction Process of Fumaric and Malic Acids by Rhizopus arrhizus NRRL 1526

“…Finally, the maximum specific fungal growth rate could be compared with values found in the literature. Values obtained during this research are very similar but slightly lower to those in similar papers [19].…”

“…Malic acid is a biomass-derived chemical that can be obtained by fumaric acid hydration using Rhyzopus oryzae whole cells in anaerobic conditions [18]. This acid potential has been growing in the last years, as its chelating properties render it very promising in the recovery of valuable metals from batteries [19], in the production of polymalic acid and copolymers for controlled drug released [20], and in the production of malic acid deep eutectic solvents [21], to name some examples of the emerging applications of this compound.…”

Lithium battery reusing and recycling: A circular economy insight

“…Indeed, upon developing the leaching process based on citric acid/phosphoric acid ​[25], Zhou and co-workers compared it with two other efficient and rapid metal recovery processes in leaching LiNi x Co y Mn z O 2 cathode material, namely those using lactic [34] acid and hydrogen peroxide, and malic [35] acid and hydrogen peroxide.…”

Countercurrent leaching of Ni, Co, Mn, and Li from spent lithium-ion batteries

“…Figure 3(a) shows the LR with respect to H 2 SO 4 concentration (1.0–3.0 M) for Li, Ni, Co, and Mn using first stage leaching residue. The LR for all metals increased with increasing H 2 SO 4 concentration, because increased H 2 SO 4 concentration increased the collision frequency between the leaching agent and first stage leaching residue (Sun et al, 2017). With the increase in H 2 SO 4 concentration from 1 to 2 M, the LR increased from 91% to 98% for Li, 87 to 95% for Ni, 85 to 95% for Co, and 84 to 93% for Mn.…”

“…The purpose of pretreatment is to obtain active material powders through a series of methods such as the mechanical technique (Bi et al, 2019), dissolution (Meshram et al, 2016) and heat treatment (Li et al, 2010). Leaching is an essential step in all hydrometallurgical processes (Liu et al, 2019), with inorganic acid (Barik et al, 2017; Fan et al, 2016; Lv et al, 2018; Yao et al, 2020); organic acid, such as citric, oxalic, or lactic acids (Nayaka et al, 2016; Sun et al, 2017); ammonia (Chen et al, 2018); and/or biological (Xin et al, 2016) leaching being commonly employed to extract metals. However, sulfuric acid (H 2 SO 4 ) leaching is currently the only recycling technology for commercial LIB, and some Chinese enterprises (such as Saidemei, Sundon, Grammy, etc.)…”