An environmentally friendly hydrometallurgy process for the recovery and reuse of metals from spent lithium-ion batteries, using organic acid

Abstract

The increasing use of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) presents a serious environmental problem. These spent LIBs are suitable sources of metals for the production of LIB cathode active material. This study successfully recovered nickel, cobalt, and aluminum from spent LIB nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) and regenerated NCA cathode. The effect of the spent anode as a reducing agent was also investigated. The spent anode alone did not reduce the metals Ni and Co sufficiently. The leaching efficiency was only 34.8, 47.15, and 86.75% for Ni, Co, and Al, respectively, and these values did not increase with increasing citric acid concentration or the addition of ascorbic acid as a reducing agent. However, it increased significantly to 85, 90.12, and 100%, for Ni, Co, and Al, respectively, with the addition of 2% v/v H2O2. The ternary metal oxalate (TMO) precipitation of the leaching solution confirmed the synthesis of TMO from the precursor. The regenerated NCA synthesized from TMO had better electrochemical performances than those of new commercial NCA. It had a specific discharge capacity of 137 mA h/g and a retention capacity of 85.4% at 2 C after 50 cycles, whereas the new commercial had a specific discharge capacity of 133.4 mA h/g and a retention capacity of 82.6% at 1 C after 50 cycles.

Design of Recycling Processes for NCA-Type Li-Ion Batteries from Electric Vehicles toward the Circular Economy

“…2,8 The results are in accordance with Jumari et al, where the authors presented similar XRD peaks for the NCA battery, being graphite for the anode, and a composition of LiMO 2 for the cathode, where M is represented by a specific transition metal, which could be Ni, Co, Mn, and Al, in different atomic proportions. 27 Figures S2 and S3 show SEM images and EDS spectra of the cathode and anode, respectively. SEM analysis of the surface of the materials showed a spherical morphology of the particles.…”

“…In the leaching reaction, the C 6 H 8 O 7 reaction had high viscosity and was difficult in solid−liquid separation as previously depicted in the literature. 27,37,40 It might increase the cost of the filtration step to obtain the leach liquor for further separation and purification techniques. Consequently, the sulfate route was decided for the following experiments.…”

Investigation of Hydrogen Reduction of LiCoO2 Cathode Material for the Recovery of Li and Co Values

“…High-purity (>98%) Li 2 CO 3 with a rod-like morphology was retrieved after evaporation of the water-leaching solution, as shown in Figure 9c. 40 High-purity Co oxalate (>98%) with a light pink color and a rod-like morphology was obtained after precipitation from the leach solution, as shown in Figure 9d. 41 The material balance of the proposed process was carried out, as shown in Figure 10 (purity in Table S1).…”

Stakeholder Analysis of The Circular Business of Electric Motorcycle Swappable Batteries in Indonesia

“…If the battery is not used, then the battery should not be disposed of carelessly, because the battery is a hazardous waste. Battery waste contains heavy metals which can be harmful to health and pollute the environment if discharged directly into the environment (Jumari et al 2022;Y. Zheng et al 2016).…”