Current Trends in Spent Portable Lithium Battery Recycling

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Growing demand for portable electronics fuels lithium battery usage.
• Effective recycling of spent lithium batteries is crucial for resource recovery and environmental protection.
• Current recycling technologies vary in efficiency and environmental impact.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide a comprehensive overview of spent portable lithium battery recycling.
• To analyze current research and industrial-scale processing techniques.
• To evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different recycling methodologies.

Main Methods:

• Review of pre-treatment methods: manual dismantling, discharging, thermal, and mechanical-physical.
• Analysis of pyrometallurgical processes: smelting and roasting.
• Examination of hydrometallurgical processes: leaching and metal recovery from leachates.
• Assessment of combined processing approaches.

Main Results:

• Mechanical-physical pre-treatment effectively isolates the metal-bearing active mass.
• Key metals for recovery include cobalt, lithium, manganese, and nickel.
• Various recycling techniques offer different efficiencies and challenges.
• Existing industrial plants for lithium battery recycling are summarized.

Conclusions:

• A detailed understanding of current spent lithium battery recycling techniques is presented.
• The paper highlights the conditions, procedures, pros, and cons of developing technologies.
• Insights into the operational status of industrial recycling plants are provided.