LITHIUM BATTERIES RECYCLE

Qianchi Liu/Zhengjia Wu/Haolin Xu/Yixuan Chen/Yiqing Sun/Maximus Chu

Introduction Methods & Objectives

• The recycling of the lithium-ion batteries is very important and
have great impact on our society.
• There are mainly 2 methods of recycling the lithium-ion
batteries, pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy, but both
methods have complicated processes, which lead to high cost.
• Pyrometallurgy method mainly has these problems: high
possibility of air pollution, high temporary, high energy
consumption and the leaching rate of Li is 85%
• Hydrometallurgy method mainly has these probelms: high
energy consumption, long process flow, high equipment
requirements, high cost, low resource recovery and the
efficiency of Li is 76.5%.
• Our objective is to find out the method of recycling the lithium-ion batteries which saves
energy,, cheap and the reaction condition is not very strict.
• Another objective is to make sure the method is green and can be achieved in industry.
• Among many new methods of recycling the lithium-ion batteries in the lab, which haven't
been used in industry, the deep etectic solvents for cathode recycling method is the one
we think the best method to be realized into larger scale.
• The deep etectic sovents method can directly dissolve the electrode under the normal
condition, and yield cobaltosic oxide.
• The deep etectic sovents method is free from heating, which can be relalized at room
temperature. No pollution gases will be emitted throuhout the process and the cost is low.
Under our calculation, it's about $36,000/t electodes.

Results
Comparison of Different LIB Recycling Methods

Conclusions References & Acknowledgements

Thanks to whomever should be acknowledged in this research.

The problems of methods of recycling lithium batteries in industry are mainly about the low efficiency and the high cost.

Deep eutectic solvents for cathode recycling of Li-ion batteries is proved to be a good method of recycling the LiB batteries. •
Preparation of LiCoO2 from spent lithium-ion batteries

The method of using the DES has many advantages, which is one of the most suitable methods still not be put into industry and it •
Recovery of Co-Oxalate
desrves a try. •
Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles
•
Deep eutectic solvents for cathode recycling of Li-ion batteries
Introduction
 Pyrometallurgy

Flow Diagram of Pyrometallurgy Experimental Setup of Pyrometallurgy

Pictures from: Churl Kyoung Lee, Kang-In Rhee, Preparation of LiCoO2 from spent lithium-ion
batteries, Journal of Power Sources, Volume 109, Issue 1, 2002, Pages 17-21
 Hydrometallurgy

Flow Diagram of Hydrometallurgy

https://www.mdpi.com/batteries/batteries-05-00041/article_deploy/html/images/batteries-05-00041-g006.png
 Comparison of different LiB recycling methods

Pyrometallurgy VS Hydrometallurgy

Harper, G., Sommerville, R., Kendrick, E. et al. Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles. Nature 575, 75–86 (2019)
doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1682-5
 Deep Eutectic Solvents For LiB Recycling

Process of LIB Recycling Method with a DES Leaching Efficiency of Cobait and Lithium in
method with a DES

• Lithium and cobalt can be extracted with

• Combining choline chloride (HOC2H4N[CH3]3Cl and
• different efficiency
ethylene glycol (HOCH2CH2OH ） in a 1:2 molar ratio.
• NMC represents lithium nickel manganese
• Co in the electrolyte will finally become Co3O4
n+
cobalt oxide
MaiK. Tran, Ganguli Babu, Pulickel M. Ajayan et al. Deep eutectic solvents forcathode recycling of Li-ion batteries. Nature Energy 2019.
 Comparison of DES and other traditional methods

DES Method Other Methods

• No pollution gases • Pollution gases emitted (CO2, P2O5)

VS
• Simple operation • Complicated processes
• No heat, save energy • Heat
• Low cost ~$36,000 • High cost
• Low demand for the equippments • High demand for the equippments
• ... • ...