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Room-temperature extraction of individual elements from charged spent LiFePO4 batteries

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Abstract

Recycling millions of metric tons of spent LiFePO4 batteries would benefit human health while reducing resource depletion and environmental pollution. However, recovering individual elements from the spent batteries without generating waste is challenging. Here, we present a distinctive approach for recycling spent LiFePO4 batteries at room temperature, where water is the only leaching agent consumed. FePO4 and lithium intercalated graphite act as a precursor material for selectively extracting lithium, iron, and phosphorus through charging the LiFePO4 batteries to the delithiated state. NaOH solution extracted Fe from FePO4 within 30 min and regenerated without consumption, similar to a catalyst. Under the optimal leaching conditions (1 mol·L−1 NaOH, 0.5 h, NaOH/Fe molar ratio of 4.5), Fe and P leaching efficiencies achieved 89.1% and 99.2%, respectively. The methodology reflected in this research reduced the material cost per kg cathode material to a fraction of previously published reports, only occupies 6.13% of previous reports. In addition, the method improved the battery recycling revenue calculated by the EverBatt model by 2.31 times and 1.94 times over pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical methods. The proposed method allows for the convenient recovery of the elemental components of spent LiFePO4 batteries.

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摘要

回收数以百万吨计的废旧磷酸铁电池将有益于人类健康, 同时减少资源消耗和环境污染。然而, 从废电池中回收单个元素而不产生废物是一项挑战。在这里, 我们提出了一种在室温下回收废旧磷酸铁锂电池的独特方法, 水是唯一消耗的浸出剂。FePO4和嵌锂石墨作为前体材料, 通过将LiFePO4电池充电至去锂状态来选择性地提取锂、铁和磷。NaOH溶液在30分钟内从FePO4中提取铁, 并在不消耗的情况下再生, 类似于催化剂。在最佳浸出条件下 (1mol·L−1 NaOH, 0.5 h, NaOH/Fe摩尔比为4.5), 铁和磷的浸出率分别达到89.1%和99.2%。本研究中反映的方法将回收每千克正极材料的成本降低到以前发表报告的一小部分, 仅占以前报告的6.13%。此外, EverBatt模型计算得出, 与火法和湿法冶金方法相比, 该方法将电池回收收入分别提高了2.31倍和1.94倍。该方法可方便地回收废旧磷酸铁锂电池的单个元素成分。

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province (No. 2020B090919003), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51872157), Shenzhen Technical Plan Project (Nos. JCYJ20170412170911187 and JCYJ20170817161753629), Guangdong Technical Plan Project (No. 2017B090907005) and the Key Project of Core Technology Tackling of Guangdong City of Dongguan (No. 2019622119003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shenzhen Key Laboratory on Power Battery Safety and Shenzhen Geim Graphene Center, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School (SIGS), Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Mei-Cen Fan, Yun Zhao, Yu-Qiong Kang, Bao-Hua Li & Fei-Yu Kang

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, 60115, USA

    John Wozny

  3. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Frontiers Science Center for Transformative Molecules, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Zheng Liang & Jun-Xiong Wang

  4. Shenzhen Geim Graphene Center, Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute and Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055, China

    Guang-Min Zhou

  5. Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, Umeå, 90187, Sweden

    Naser Tavajohi

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  1. Mei-Cen Fan
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Fan, MC., Zhao, Y., Kang, YQ. et al. Room-temperature extraction of individual elements from charged spent LiFePO4 batteries. Rare Met. 41, 1595–1604 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-021-01919-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12598-021-01919-6

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