Study on green closed-loop regeneration of waste lithium iron phosphate based on oxalic acid system

The recovery of valuable metals from used lithium batteries is essential from an environmental and resource management standpoint. However, the most widely used acid leaching method causes significant ecological harm. Here, we proposed a method of recovering Li and Fe selectively from used lithium iron phosphate batteries by using low-concentration organic acid and completing the closed-loop regeneration. Low-concentration oxalic acid is used to carry out PO₄^3-_, which is significantly less soluble in aqueous solution than Li, two-stage selective leaching Li, where the leaching rate of Li reaches 99 %, and the leaching rate of Fe is only 2.4 %. The leach solution is then decontaminated. The solubility of Li₃PO₄ in aqueous solution is much smaller than that of Li₂C₂O₄, which was required to recover Li to change the pH and Li can be recovered as Li₃PO₄; Fe can be retrieved as FeC₂O₄·2H₂O, and re-prepared into lithium iron phosphate.