Spent LIBs

Efficient and sustainable recycling of metal resources from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has been attracting increasing attention, while the overwhelming dependency on chemicals and energy of the currently prevailing spent LIB recycling technologies makes it vulnerable to secondary contaminations. These years, the mechanochemistry-based process is proposed to recover metals from waste cathode materials of LiCoO2 (LCO) and LiFePO4 (LFP) in spent LIBs based on their intrinsic redox properties.

There are several technological processes for the reuse and recycling of LIBs, which includes discharge, sorting, crushing, binder removal, physical separation, and pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processing. UrbanMines’ technical advisors conclude that hydrometallurgy might be the most efficient method of recycling waste LIBs on an industrial scale.