Lithium-ion Battery Recycling: Analyzing Methods of Cobalt and Lithium Resource Reclamation

The electric vehicle, power storage and mobile electronics industries are expected to grow exponentially within the next decade and are all technologically driven by lithium ion batteries (LIB). However, very few methods of recycling LIB hazardous waste have been implemented. Two commercial and two scholarly methods of LIB recycling were investigated for the purpose of valuable metal reclamation, grave-to-cradle life-cycle analysis and reduction of environmental impacts. First, a qualitative comparison of the four methods investigated three auditable categories: Energy Consumption, Cost of Operations, and Environmental Impact/Resource Loss. The physical and chemical procedures of each method were examined and then ranked according to set parameters by category. Two published methods of LIB recycling in the lab were then reproduced in the lab using similar protocol techniques. One method involved the chemical precipitation of the desired metal salt, LiCoO2 by leaching the metals with 3M HCl and 3M NaOH with 3.5% vol. H2O2 as a reducing agent, using a 1:20 mg/ml ratio, temperature of 80° C and a time of 60 minutes. The second method used an ultrasonic sifter to aid in the leaching of LiCoO2 with 0.5M citric acid, 0.55M H2O2, a 25g/L ratio, a temperature of 60° C and a leaching time of 5 hours. Both methods were compared using percent yield, purity and XRD. The objective of this compounded study was to gather information and expose potential gaps in LIB recycling industry knowledge as well as inform future researchers/entrepreneurs in regards to which recycling processes are most environmentally and economically sustainable.