Cathode to Cathode Lithium Ion Battery Recycling

Due to their high energy density, long lifespan and light weight, lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries accounted for $11.8 billion dollars in sales in 2012, that makes up 60% of total portable battery sales and 37% of total battery sales. The same factors also make them the best candidate for use in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). Currently in the US almost all spent lithium ion batteries are land filled, compared to other types of batteries, such as lead acid batteries, in which 97% are recycled. This presents a large amount of environmental waste. Based on current trends in Li-ion battery use, if Li-ion batteries are not recycled, global lithium reserves are expected to be depleted by 2050. Additionally, recycling Li-ion batteries presents an economic opportunity in through the recovery of key valuable metals, such as cobalt, nickel and copper. Currently, most Li-ion battery recyclers focus on recovering cobalt from LiCoO 2 cathode material or through the recovery of Co and Ni from the cathode materials via a high temperature pyrometallurgical approach. We propose a new methodology that uses a low temperature hydrometallurgical approach that has the advantage of having high efficiency of recovery. This process works regardless of the Li-ion batteries chemistry, shape and size and recovers Co, Ni, and Mn in the form of their hydroxides, which when sintered with recovered Li 2 CO 3 produces new LiNixMn y Co z O 2 cathode materials. The regenerated cathode material, LiNi x Mn y Co z O 2 , has been tested and exhibits good electrochemical performance. In addition to the cathode material, copper, aluminium, steel, etc are also recycled. Figure 1