The process of recovering valuable metals from lithium ion batteries

The spent Lithium ion Batteries (LIB) is not only contain value metals, such as nickel, cobalt, copper, and lithium, but also produce large amounts of metal-containing hazardous waste. Therefore, the development of recycling technologies for spent LIBs has attracted great attention, both for environmental protection and resources conservation. The number of lithium batteries estimated will reach 7 billion in 2016, which is ther efore valuable to recycle. The spent LIBs contain cobalt, nickel and manganese with variable concentrations, thus making chemical processes for recovery of the spent LIBs more complex. In this study, we are engaged in developing an effective recycling processes of recovering valuable metal from spent lithium ion batteries. Including reductive roasting technology, reductive acid leaching, solvent extraction technology, ion exchange technology and chemical deposition of cobalt oxalate. Cobalt (II) was then extracted selectively from the purified aqueous phase. Then, the Co and Ni contained in the solution can be recovered as a Co-Ni mixture by electrolytic refining. After electrolysis, the purity of cobalt metal is over 98%. The combined process is simple and adequate for the recovery of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries.