A Mini-Review on Metal Recycling from Spent Lithium Ion Batteries
Xiaohong Zheng,
Zewen Zhu,
Xiao Lin,
Yi Zhang,
Yi He,
Hongbin Cao,
Zhi Sun
Affiliations
Xiaohong Zheng
Beijing Engineering Research Center of Process Pollution Control, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Division of Environment Technology and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Zewen Zhu
Taixing High School of Jiangsu Province, Taixing 225400, China
Xiao Lin
Beijing Engineering Research Center of Process Pollution Control, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Division of Environment Technology and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Yi Zhang
Beijing Engineering Research Center of Process Pollution Control, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Division of Environment Technology and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Yi He
Solid Waste and Chemicals Management Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China, Beijing 100029, China
Hongbin Cao
Beijing Engineering Research Center of Process Pollution Control, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Division of Environment Technology and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Zhi Sun
Beijing Engineering Research Center of Process Pollution Control, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Division of Environment Technology and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China; Corresponding author.
The rapid growth of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) for portable electronic devices and electric vehicles has resulted in an increased number of spent LIBs. Spent LIBs contain not only dangerous heavy metals but also toxic chemicals that pose a serious threat to ecosystems and human health. Therefore, a great deal of attention has been paid to the development of an efficient process to recycle spent LIBs for both economic aspects and environmental protection. In this paper, we review the state-of-the-art processes for metal recycling from spent LIBs, introduce the structure of a LIB, and summarize all available technologies that are used in different recovery processes. It is notable that metal extraction and pretreatment play important roles in the whole recovery process, based on one or more of the principles of pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, biometallurgy, and so forth. By further comparing different recycling methods, existing challenges are identified and suggestions for improving the recycling effectiveness can be proposed. Keywords: Spent lithium ion batteries, Valuable metals, Pretreatment, Metal extraction, Product preparation, Recycling
