Recycle, Recover and Repurpose Strategy of Spent Li‐ion Batteries and Catalysts: Current Status and Future Opportunities

Abstract

The disposal of hazardous waste of any form has become a great concern for the industrial sector due to increased environmental awareness. The increase in usage of hydroprocessing catalysts by petrochemical industries and lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) in portable electronics and electric vehicles will soon generate a large amount of scrap and create significant environmental problems. Like general electronic wastes, spent catalysts and LIBs are currently discarded in municipal solid waste and disposed of in landfills in the absence of policy and feasible technology to drive alternatives. Such inactive catalyst materials and spent LIBs not only contain not only hazardous heavy metals but also toxic and carcinogenic chemicals. Besides polluting the environment, these systems (spent catalysts and LIBs) contain valuable metals such as Ni, Mo, Co, Li, Mn, Rh, Pt, and Pd. Therefore, the extraction and recovery of these valuable metals has significant importance. In this Review, we have summarized the strategies used to recover valuable (expensive) as well as cheap metals from secondary resources—especially spent catalysts and LIBs. The first section contains the background and sources of LIBs and catalyst scraps with their current recycling status, followed by a brief explanation of metal recovery methods such as pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and biometallurgy. The recent advances achieved in these methods are critically summarized. Thus, the Review provides a guide for the selection of adequate methods for metal recovery and future opportunities for the repurposing of recovered materials.

A Perspective on the Sustainability of Cathode Materials used in Lithium‐Ion Batteries

“…Lack of labeling systems on battery packs makes pre-sorting challenging and introduces additional safety concerns as LIBs can enter Pb-acid battery waste streams accidentally. [101] Of the reviews considered, [21,94,95,[98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109] the technical barriers to widespread adoption of LIB recycling identified were ubiquitous, with each highlighting the need for; 1) sufficient labeling systems for easy identification, 2) standardization of cell material, cell design and processing, and/or greater flexibility in the recycling processes, 3) minimization of components, 4) screening, health monitoring and sorting methods and 5) automation in the disassembly line. It was acknowledged by the majority of reviews that many of these challenges require necessary intervention from policy-makers to provide a clear recycling industry chain and introduce sufficient regulations for the safe transport and handling of waste LIBs.…”

Cobalt Recovery from Li-Ion Battery Recycling: A Critical Review

“…The Li-ion batteries configuration can be cylindrical, prismatic, and pouch, which depends on the vehicle producer [18], and they are composed of: an external casing (Fe-Ni alloys or metallic Al: 20-26%), cathode (~27%), anode (~17%), Cu and Al foils and current collector (~13%), polymeric separator (microporous polypropylene or polyethylene: 4-10%), electrolyte (10-15%), and binder (usually PVDF: ~4%) [19].…”

Extremophiles, a Nifty Tool to Face Environmental Pollution: From Exploitation of Metabolism to Genome Engineering

“…Biometallurgy is the branch of biotechnology that exploits the interaction between microorganisms (or their components) and metals or metal-bearing minerals ( Figure 2 ) [ 49 ]. It includes microbial processes as metal biosorption, bioaccumulation or biomining (described below); these processes play a crucial role, on one hand, in the supply of critical raw materials, because can offer eco-efficient alternatives to classical pyro- or hydrometallurgical processes [ 50 , 51 ], and on the other hand in the set-up of strategies for metal biomonitoring and bioremediation ( Table 1 ). In this context, the exploitation of thermophiles offers several advantages related to their ability to survive under harsh conditions and to degrade recalcitrant mineral species.…”