A combined process was investigated to recover high value-added metals from lithium nickel cobalt manganese (NCM) cathode materials of spent lithium-ion batteries. In this approach, the cathode materials was first roasted with graphite which recycled from anode materials of spent lithium-ion batteries, and then conducted to a reductant-free sulfuric acid leaching for recovering Co, Ni and Mn efficiently. The physicochemical changes of the cathode materials in the reduction thermal treatment was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analyses. The experimental results show that under the optimum processing conditions, the mixed electrode materials can be in situ converted into the desired CoO, NiO, Li2CO3 and Mn compounds. Since obtaining CoO and NiO needs lower energy consumption than obtaining Co and Ni metal in reduction roasting, the lower temperature and shorter treatment time can be adopted in the reduction roasting process. Besides producing no H2 in the leaching process, more facile leaching condition could also be used considering that the leaching of CoO and NiO is easier than leaching of Co and Ni metal. Finally, more than 99% of Ni, Co and Li are extracted without adding reductant under the conditions of a H2SO4 dosage of 1.15 times the theoretical value. This promising process can not only make efficient use of waste anode graphite, save energy consumption, but also benefit facile leaching of valuable metals in the recycling spent lithium-ion batteries. This efficient, economical, and environmentally friendly process have great potential for industrial scale-up recycling from spent lithium-ion batteries.

Improved recovery of high value-added metals from spent lithium-ion batteries by efficient reduction roasting and facile acid leaching

2019 Fall National Meeting

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