Development of recycling technology to recover valuable metals from lithium primary and ion batteries

Abstract

This study focused on a newly proposed recycling process to recover electrodic powder enriched in cobalt (Co) and lithium (Li) from spent lithium primary and ion batteries. In addition, this new process was designed to prevent the explosion of batteries during thermal treatment under an inert atmosphere. Spent lithium mixed batteries were heated over the range of 300 °C to 600 °C for 2 h, and each component was completely separated inside the reactor after the experiment. Electrodic powder was successfully recovered from the bulk components through sieving; the powder contained several pieces of metals. The electrodic powder obtained was examined using X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and atomic absorption spectroscopy. Additionally, an image of the powder was taken using scanning electron microscopy. The cobalt and lithium were mainly recovered at approximately 32–35 wt% and 3–5 wt% in the electrodic powder, respectively. © 2015, IMechE. All rights reserved.