Hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of metal values from spent automobile lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Recycling of different types of batteries, such as alkaline battery, nickel-metal hydride battery has been studied for many years since they have been traded in the market by several years. Nevertheless, the recycling of LIB has been started recently.

In order to attain this purpose, many processes using the pyro metallurgical and hydrometallurgical routes have been designed. Some of them are currently applied at industrial scale. However, a necessity of improvement of these processes is still latent since several stages are needed in order to produce a high purity product (re-leaching of metal alloys).

The present work is focused on the evaluation of a hydrometallurgical route for the recycling of the batteries electrode powders generating saleable metallic products. In order to attain this objective, the evaluation of sulphuric acid leaching using hydrogen peroxide is performed. A subsequent liquor treatment circuit using copper cementation, metal precipitation, solvent extraction stages, and finally, lithium crystallisation is studied. Finally, a flow sheet of the process together with the overall mass balance will be presented.