A comprehensive review on the recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries: Urgent status and technology advances

The number of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is steadily increasing in order to meet the ever-growing demand for sustainable energy and a high quality of life for humankind. At the same time, the resulting large number of LIB waste certainly poses safety hazards if it is not properly disposed of and will seriously harm the environment due to its inherent toxicity due to the use of toxic substances. Moreover, the consumption of many scarce precious metal resources is behind the mass production of batteries. In the light of severe environmental, resources, safety and recycling problems, recycling spent LIBs have become an essential urgently needed action to achieve sustainable social development. This review therefore critically analyses the value and the need for recycling of spent LIBs from a variety of resources and the environment. A range of existing technologies for recycling and reusing spent LIBs, such as pretreatment, pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and direct recycled methods, is subsequently summarized exclusively. In addition, the benefits and problems of the methods described above are analyzed in detail. It also introduces recycling progress of other LIB components, such as anodes, separators, and electrolytes, as well as the high-value cathode. Finally, the prospects for recycling LIBs are addressed in four ways (government, users, battery manufacturers, and recyclers). This review should contribute to the development of the recycling of used LIBs, particularly in support of industrialization and recycling processes. 

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/eem2.12271

Progresses in Sustainable Recycling Technology of Spent Lithium‐Ion Batteries

A review on comprehensive recycling of spent power lithium-ion battery in China

Recent progress in sustainable recycling of LiFePO4-type lithium-ion batteries: Strategies for highly selective lithium recovery

A new type of deep-eutectic solvents (DESs), consisting of ethylene glycol (EG) and sulfosalicylic acid dihydrate (SAD), were designed for efficient leaching valuable metals from cathode active materials (LiCoO2 and Li14.8Ni1.7Co8.5MnO30.5) of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) for the first time. The as-prepared DESs possessed strong coordination ability and low viscosity, which were suitable for metal extraction. The influences of experiment parameters on extraction of Co and Li were systematically investigated, and the leaching mechanism and kinetics were elucidated in detail. Under the optimal conditions, the leaching efficiencies of Co and Li from pure LiCoO2 reached 93.5% and 98.3%, while those of Co, Ni, Mn, and Li achieved 94.8%, 99.1%, 100%, and 100% from the spent Li14.8Ni1.7Co8.5MnO30.5, respectively. Results revealed that the Li+ ions located in the interlayer of layered LiCoO2 were replaced by H+ ions and entered into solution, while Co3+ ions in the skeleton structure were reduced and coordinated by EG and sulfosalicylic acid (SA) to form four soluble Co2+–SA complexes, realizing synergistic and efficient leaching of Li and Co from the LIB cathode active material. Moreover, Co and Li leaching kinetics conformed to the shrinking core model, in which the interfacial chemical reaction was the limiting step, and the apparent activation energies were separately about 77.38 and 79.54 kJ/mol. 

A Novel Deep-Eutectic Solvent with Strong Coordination Ability and Low Viscosity for Efficient Extraction of Valuable Metals from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

Pursuing green and efficient process towards recycling of different metals from spent lithium-ion batteries through Ferro-chemistry

In-situ recycling of coating materials and Al foils from spent lithium ion batteries by ultrasonic-assisted acid scrubbing

Novel electrochemically driven and internal circulation process for valuable metals recycling from spent lithium-ion batteries

A huge amount of exhausted lithium ion batteries (LIBs) will be inevitably generated with their wide application in electronic/electrical devices (e.g. mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras) and EVs/HEVs (i.e. electric vehicles/hybrid electric vehicles). And the recycling of valuable metals these spent LIBs may not only alleviate or prevent adverse impact on environment, but also expect potentially economic and resource-oriented benefits. This chapter will focus on the presentation of the relevant introduction and analysis of current hydrometallurgical processes for the separation and recovery of metals from spent LIBs. Firstly, a relatively systematic framework concerning the leaching of metals from spent LIBs is established for the discussion and evaluation of the current leaching methods, including chemical leaching and bioleaching. Then, the separation and recovery of metals from leaching solutions will be comprehensively summarized and discussed concerning chemical precipitation, solvent extraction and other separation methods. Finally, the regeneration of cathode materials by hydrometallurgical method is introduced and analyzed in this chapter. This chapter expects to present comprehensive introduction of current hydrometallurgical processes for different metals recycling from spent LIBs in aspects of leaching, metal separation/recovery and cathode materials re-preparation.

Shuzhen Li

Papers

Pursuing green and efficient process towards recycling of different metals from spent lithium-ion batteries through Ferro-chemistry

In-situ recycling of coating materials and Al foils from spent lithium ion batteries by ultrasonic-assisted acid scrubbing

Novel electrochemically driven and internal circulation process for valuable metals recycling from spent lithium-ion batteries

Hydrometallurgical Processes for Valuable Metals Recycling from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries