Hydrometallurgical Processes for Valuable Metals Recycling from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

Abstract

A huge amount of exhausted lithium ion batteries (LIBs) will be inevitably generated with their wide application in electronic/electrical devices (e.g. mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras) and EVs/HEVs (i.e. electric vehicles/hybrid electric vehicles). And the recycling of valuable metals these spent LIBs may not only alleviate or prevent adverse impact on environment, but also expect potentially economic and resource-oriented benefits. This chapter will focus on the presentation of the relevant introduction and analysis of current hydrometallurgical processes for the separation and recovery of metals from spent LIBs. Firstly, a relatively systematic framework concerning the leaching of metals from spent LIBs is established for the discussion and evaluation of the current leaching methods, including chemical leaching and bioleaching. Then, the separation and recovery of metals from leaching solutions will be comprehensively summarized and discussed concerning chemical precipitation, solvent extraction and other separation methods. Finally, the regeneration of cathode materials by hydrometallurgical method is introduced and analyzed in this chapter. This chapter expects to present comprehensive introduction of current hydrometallurgical processes for different metals recycling from spent LIBs in aspects of leaching, metal separation/recovery and cathode materials re-preparation.