Treatment and recycling of spent lithium-based batteries: a review

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have a wide range of applications from electronic products to electric mobility and space exploration rovers. This results in an increase in the demand for LIBs, driven primarily by the growth in the number of electric vehicles (EVs). This growing demand will eventually lead to large amounts of waste LIBs dumped into landfills which can cause serious environmental problems. To reduce this environmental impact, the need for efficient recycling technology emerges. Furthermore, it has been proven that recycling waste LIBs consume less material and energy than producing new ones from virgin materials. Therefore, this paper aims to review different recycling technologies including hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, direct recycling, and precise separation. The review concludes that hydrometallurgy might be the most efficient method of recycling waste LIBs on an industrial scale.