• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
• /
• 2001.10a
• /
• pp.240-244
• /
• 2001

Recycling process involving mechanical, thermal, hydrometallurgical, and sol-gel step has been applied to recover cobalt and lithium from spent lithium ion batteries and to synthesize LiCoO$_2$from leach liquor as cathodic active materials. Electrode materials containing lithium and cobalt could be concentrated with 2-step thermal and mechanical treatment. Leaching behaviors of the lithium and cobalt in nitric acid media was investigated in terms of reaction variables. Hydrogen peroxide in 1 M HNO$_3$solution turned out to be an effective reducing agent by enhancing the leaching efficiency. O f many possible processes to produce LiCoO$_2$, the amorphous citrate precursor process (ACP) has been applied to synthesize powders with a large specific surface area and an exact stoichiometry. After leaching used LiCoO$_2$with nitric acid, the molar ratio of Li/Co in the leach liquor was adjusted at 1.1 by adding a fresh LiNO$_3$solution. Then, 1 M citric acid solution at a 100% stoichiometry was also added to prepare a gelatinous precursor. When the precursor was calcined at 95$0^{\circ}C$ for 24 hr, purely crystalline LiCoO$_2$was successfully obtained. The particle size and specific surface area of the resulting crystalline powders were 20 пm and 30 $\textrm{cm}^2$/g, respectively The LiCoO$_2$powder was proved to have good characteristics as cathode active materials in charge/discharge capacity and cyclic performance.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.24 no.6
• /
• pp.9-16
• /
• 2015

In a recycling scheme of spent lithium ion batteries, a co-precipitation process for the re-synthesis of precursor is essential after the leaching of lithium ion battery scraps. In this study, the effect of ammonia as impurity during the co-precipitation process was investigated in order to re-synthesize a precursor of Ni-rich cathode active material $LiNi_{0.6}Co_{0.2}Mn_{0.2}O_2$ (NCM 622). As ammonia concentration increases from 1 M (the optimum condition for synthesis of the precursors based on 2 M of metal salt solution) to 4 M, the composition of obtained precursors deviates from the designed composition, most notably for Ni. The Ni co-precipitation efficiency gradually decreases from 100% to 87% when the concentration of ammonia solution increases from 1 M to 4 M. Meanwhile, the morphological properties of the obtained precursors such as sphericity, homogeneity and size distribution of particles were also investigated.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.73-80
• /
• 2022

Reduction smelting of spent lithium-ion batteries at high temperature produces metallic alloys. Following solvent extraction of the leaching solutions of these metallic alloys with either sulfuric or hydrochloric acid, the raffinate is found to contain Ni(II), Co(II), Mn(II), and Si(IV). In this study, two cationic exchange resins (Diphonix and P204) were employed to investigate the loading behavior of these ions from synthetic sulfate and chloride solutions. Experimental results showed that Ni(II), Co(II), and Mn(II) could be selectively loaded onto the Diphonix resin from a sulfate solution of pH 3.0. With a chloride solution of pH 6.0, Mn(II) was selectively loaded onto the P204 resin, leaving Ni(II) and Si(IV) in the effluent. Elution experiments with H₂SO₄ and/or HCl resulted in the complete recovery of metal ions from the loaded resin.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.65-70
• /
• 2011

Environmental friendly leaching process for the recovery of cobalt and lithium from the $LiCoO_2$ was investigated by organic acids as a leaching reagent. The experimental parameters, such as organic acid type, concentrations of leachant and hydrogen peroxide, reaction time and temperature as well as the pulp density were tested to obtain the most effective conditions for the leaching of cobalt and lithium. The results showed that the latic acid was the most effective leaching reagent for cobalt and lithium among the organic acids and was reached about 99.9% of leaching percentage respectively. With the increase of the concentration of citric acid, hydrogen peroxide and temperature, the leaching rate of cobalt and lithium increased. But the increase of pulp density decreased the leaching rate of cobalt and lithium.

• Journal of Powder Materials
• /
• v.25 no.4
• /
• pp.296-301
• /
• 2018

In this study, an experiment is performed to recover the Li in $Li_2CO_3$ phase from the cathode active material NMC ($LiNiCoMnO_2$) in waste lithium ion batteries. Firstly, carbonation is performed to convert the LiNiO, LiCoO, and $Li_2MnO_3$ phases within the powder to $Li_2CO_3$ and NiO, CoO, and MnO. The carbonation for phase separation proceeds at a temperature range of $600^{\circ}C{\sim}800^{\circ}C$ in a $CO_2$ gas (300 cc/min) atmosphere. At $600{\sim}700^{\circ}C$, $Li_2CO_3$ and NiO, CoO, and MnO are not completely separated, while Li and other metallic compounds remain. At $800^{\circ}C$, we can confirm that LiNiO, LiCoO, and $Li_2MnO_3$ phases are separated into $Li_2CO_3$ and NiO, CoO, and MnO phases. After completing the phase separation, by using the solubility difference of $Li_2CO_3$ and NiO, CoO, and MnO, we set the ratio of solution (distilled water) to powder after carbonation as 30:1. Subsequently, water leaching is carried out. Then, the $Li_2CO_3$ within the solution melts and concentrates, while NiO, MnO, and CoO phases remain after filtering. Thus, $Li_2CO_3$ can be recovered.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.44-50
• /
• 2015

Recycling technologies would be required in consideration of increasing demand in lithium ion batteries (LIBs). In this study, the leaching behavior of Ni, Co and Mn is investigated with ammoniacal medium for spent cathode active materials, which are separated from a commercial LIB pack in hybrid electric vehicles. The leaching behavior of each metal is analyzed in the presence of reducing agent and pH buffering agent. The existence of reducing agent is necessary to increase the leaching efficiency of Ni and Co. The leaching of Mn is insignificant even with the existence of reducing agent in contrast to Ni and Co. The most conspicuous difference between acid and ammoniacal leaching would be the selective leaching behavior between Ni/Co and Mn. The ammoniacal leaching can reduce the cost of basic reagent that makes the pH of leachate higher for the precipitation of leached metals in the acid leaching.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.21 no.4
• /
• pp.16-25
• /
• 2012

There are several kinds of batteries such as zinc-air battery, lithium battery, Manganese dry battery, silver oxide battery, sodium-sulphur battery, lead acid battery, metal hydride secondary battery, nickel-cadmium battery, lithium ion battery, alkaline battery, etc. These days it has been widely studied for the recycling technologies of the used battery from view points of economy and efficiency. In this paper, patents and published papers on the recycling technologies of the used battery were analyzed. The range of search was limited in the open patents of USA (US), European Union (EU), Japan (JP), Korea (KR) and SCI journal articles from 1972 to 2011. Patents and journal articles were collected using key-words searching and filtered by filtering criteria. The trends of the patents and journal articles were analyzed by the years, countries, companies, and technologies.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.21 no.6
• /
• pp.58-64
• /
• 2012

A study on the solvent extraction for the separation and recovery of Ni and Li from the leaching solution of active cathode materials of Li-ion batteries was investigated using PC88A(2-ethylhexyl phosphonic acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester). The experimental parameters, such as the pH of the solution, concentration of extractant and phase ratio were observed. Experimental results showed that the extraction percent of Ni and Li and separation factor of Ni/Li were increased with increasing the equilibrium pH. More than 99.4% of Ni and 28.7% of Li were extracted in eq. pH 8.5 by 25% PC88A and the separation factor of Ni/Li was 411.6. From the analysis of McCabe-Thiele diagram, 99% of Ni was extracted by three extraction stages at phase ratio(A/O) of 1.5. Stripping of Ni and Li from the loaded organic phases can be accomplished by sulfuric acid as a stripping reagent and 50-60g/L of $H_2SO_4$ was effective for the stripping of Ni.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.28 no.5
• /
• pp.60-67
• /
• 2019

A valuable metal recovery from waste resources such as spent rechargeable secondary batteries is of critical issues because of a sharp increase in the amount of waste resources. In this context, it is necessary to research not only recycling waste lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), but also reusing valuable metals (e.g., Li, Co, Ni, Mn etc.) recovered from waste LIBs. In particular, the lithium hydroxide ($LiOH{\cdot}xH_2O$), which is of precursors that can be prepared by the recovery of Li in waste LIBs, can be reused as a catalyst, a carbon dioxide absorbent, and again as a precursor for cathode materials of LIB. However, most studies of recycling the waste LIBs have been focused on the preparation of lithium carbonate with a recovery of Li. Herein, we show the preparation of high purity lithium hydroxide powder along with the precipitation process, and the systematic study to find an optimum condition is also carried out. The lithium carbonate, which is recovered from waste LIBs, was used as starting materials for synthesis of lithium hydroxide. The optimum precipitation conditions for the preparation of LiOH were found as follows: based on stirring, reaction temperature $90^{\circ}C$, reaction time 3 hr, precursor ratio 1:1. To synthesize uniform and high purity lithium hydroxide, 2-step precipitation process was additionally performed, and consequently, high purity $LiOH{\cdot}xH_2O$ powder was obtained.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.30 no.2
• /
• pp.53-60
• /
• 2021

Leaching experiments from single metal and metallic mixtures were conducted to develop a process for the recovery of cobalt, copper, and nickel in spent lithium ion batteries. Inorganic and organic acid solutions without oxidizing agents were employed. No copper was dissolved in the absence of an oxidizing agent in the leaching solutions. The leaching condition to completely dissolve single metal of cobalt and nickel was determined based on acid concentration, reaction temperature and time, and pulp density. The leaching condition to dissolve all of cobalt and nickel from the metallic mixtures was also obtained. Leaching of the metallic mixture with methanesulfonic acid led to selective dissolution of cobalt at low temperatures.