Design of pilot-scale delamination plant along with techno-economic and life cycle assessments considering renewable and non-renewable energy sources

Abstract

Significant research has been focused on delamination of untreated cathode material (UCM); however, limited attention is given to scaling these processes on an industrial scale. Therefore, this research aims to go beyond the traditional approaches by emphasizing the development of a novel and environmentally sustainable process for the in-situ simultaneous recovery of hydrogen gas and UCM from spent cathode electrodes. Hydrogen gas production at the lab scale was optimized using artificial neural network, and the optimal conditions were identified. Additionally, a pilot plant study was conducted, incorporating a comprehensive life cycle and techno-economic assessments. Furthermore, the impact of renewable energy sources (solar, biomass, wind) was compared with non-renewable (mix-grid) energy source. It was found that significant reduction occurs in global warming potential by 96 %, 93 %, and 99 % with lowered annual utility costs by 55 %, 96 %, and 60 % respectively for solar, biomass, and wind as compared to mix-grid energy.