Combined mechanical process recycling technology for recovering copper and aluminium components of spent lithium-iron phosphate batteries

Abstract

The recycling processes of spent lithium iron phosphate batteries comprise thermal, wet, and biological and mechanical treatments. Limited research has been conducted on the combined mechanical process recycling technology and such works are limited to the separation of metal and non-metal materials, which belongs to mechanical recovery. In this article the combined mechanical process recycling technology of spent lithium iron phosphate batteries and the separation of metals has been investigated. The spent lithium iron phosphate batteries monomer with the completely discharged electrolyte was subjected to perforation discharge. The shell was directly recycled and the inner core was directly separated into a positive electrode piece, dissepiment, and negative electrode piece. The dissociation rate of the positive and negative materials reached 100.0% after crushing when the temperature and time reached 300 °C and 120 min. The crushed products were collected and sequentially sieved after the low-temperature thermal treatment. Then, nonferrous metals (copper and aluminium) were separated from the crushed spent lithium iron phosphate batteries by eddy current separation with particle size −4 + 0.4. The optimised operation parameters of eddy current separation were fed at speeds of 40 r min-1, and the rotation speed of the magnetic field was 800 r min-1. The nonferrous metals of copper and aluminium were separated by the method of pneumatic separation. The optimal air speed was 0.34 m s-1 for the particle-size −1.6 + 0.4 mm and 12.85–14.23 m s-1 for the particle-size −4 + 1.6 mm. The present recycling process is eco-friendly and highly efficient and produces little waste.

Direct Recycling Strategy for Spent Lithium Iron Phosphate Powder: an Efficient and Wastewater-Free Process

“…Due to the deterioration of the environment, countries all over the world are emphasizing the development and utilization of renewable nonfossil energy. The global energy pattern is undergoing a fundamental change from relying on traditional fossil energy to embracing clean and efficient energy. − Energy storage devices with attractive capacity, extended life span, acceptable safety performance, and satisfying cost manifest the core unit urgently needed to implement the application of renewable energy, the construction of smart grids, and the development of electric vehicles. , Among them, the lithium-ion battery, an anticipated electrochemical energy storage technology, has entered the rapid development stage and shows great potential for applications to a new engine of energy power. − …”

Graphite Recycling from the Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries by Sulfuric Acid Curing–Leaching Combined with High-Temperature Calcination

“…In industrial processes, LIBs are crushed first, followed by physical sorting to produce copper foil, aluminum foil, cathode, and anode materials individually. − Accordingly, some metal impurities, organic electrolytes, and binders are inevitably entrained in the SG. Additionally, the structure of SG has been damaged after thousands of charge and discharge cycles. − Previous research studies have been divided into two aspects.…”

Environment-friendly technology for recovering cathode materials from spent lithium iron phosphate batteries

“…Essential for a successful separation by screening and CES sorting was a crushing process which completely liberated the components of the battery cell, namely cathode foil, anode foils, separator foil and volatile solvents from the electrolyte. Previous studies (Bi et al, 2019a, 2019b) reported that the best heat treatment temperature and time are 300°C and 120 minutes, respectively. An in-depth investigation of the crushing and sieving results of the cathode slices of an LFP power battery is presented in Table 1 and Figure 6.…”