Separation of lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt from waste lithium-ion batteries using electrodialysis

Application of Electrodialysis for the Selective Lithium Extraction Towards Cobalt, Nickel and Manganese from Leach Solutions Containing High Divalent Cations/Li Ratio

“…The permselectivity index for the Neosepta ® monovalent-selective cationic exchange membrane (P Li/Co = 5.6) is slightly lower than those reported in the work of Afifah et al (2018) [17], i.e., P(Li/Co) = 6.75 at a flowrate of 15 L h −1 and for a voltage of 3 V/Cell with a pack containing 5 pairs of monovalent selective membranes PC-MVA/PC-MVK (initial lithium(I) and cobalt(II) concentration = 100 mg L −1 and 300 mg L −1 , respectively) against P(Li/Co) = 5.6 in this study. However, the value reported in our work regarding the permselectivity index for lithium(I) toward manganese(II) is greater than that obtained by Chan et al [13] (P(Li/Mn) = 5.4 in the present study against P(Li/Mn) = 2.81 at a flowrate of 45 L h −1 and for a voltage of 6 V/Cell with a pack containing 2 pairs of standard anionic membranes PCA PC 400D and 2 Neosepta ® CMS cationic membranes, which are selective towards monovalent cations).…”

“…Many researches focused on the investigation of alternative unit operations to improve the recycling process efficiency while reducing the process cost and the environmental impact. For instance, the development of unit operations based on the use of microorganismsultrawave, deep-eutectic solvents to leach cathodic materials as well as ionic liquidsdeep-eutectic solvents or supercritical fluids to extract and separate valuable metals from cathodic materials, are under investigation [10][11][12][13]. Electrodialysis (ED) is another relevant technology which is widely used in desalination processes [14,15].…”

“…This technology may advantageously reduce the environmental impact, the capital expenditure and operation expenditure of hydrometallurgical processes. However, few studies concern its use in hydrometallurgical processes, and even less address the use of ED in lithium-ion battery recycling processes [13,[16][17][18] Lizuka et al [16] showed that the use of Selemion CMV cation exchange membrane and BP-1E bipolar membrane in electrodializer allowed in recovering selectively 99% lithium(I) from a leaching solution containing 138.82 mg L −1 lithium(I) and 1.179 g L −1 cobalt(II) produced by digesting LiCoO 2 in 1 mol L −1 nitric acid in the presence of 0.8 (vol) % of H 2 O 2 , providing that cobalt(II) was previously complexed by ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) at pH = 4. Likewise, Afifah et al [17] studied the lithium(I)-cobalt(II) separation in nitric acid by electrodialysis by using five pairs of monovalent selective ions exchange membranes (PC Cell membranes PC-MVK/PC-MVA).…”

“…Sodium carbonate was added into the resulting solution containing lithium(I) to precipitate lithium carbonate (purity = 99.3 %). Chan et al (2022) [13] studied lithium(I)-cobalt(II)-nickel(II)-manganese(II) separation from the leach solution containing 69.41 mg L −1 Li(I), 195.43 mg L −1 Ni(II), 182.91 mg L −1 Mn(II) and 196.24 mg L −1 Co(II), produced by digesting LiNi 1/3 Mn 1/3 Co 1/3 O 2 (NMC111) in 1 mol L −1 H 2 SO 4 in the presence of 0.62% (wt) H 2 O 2 . Around 99% nickel was recovered by ED after complexation with EDTA at pH = 2.…”

“…Therefore, only several papers were focused on the use of electrodialysis to separate lithium(I), cobalt(II), nickel(II) and manganese(II) in acidic sulfate media without the use of additives such as chelating agents, which avoid precipitation phenomena during electrodialysis [13]. The present paper investigates the separation of lithium(I) from manganese(II), nickel(II) and cobalt(II) in acid sulfate media even at relatively low pH by means of electrodialysis using two commercial membranes, i.e., Neosepta ® monovalent-selective cation exchange membrane and CSO cationic exchange membrane.…”