SBIR Phase I: Electrochemical Separation Device for Co-Ni Recovery from Li-ion Batteries

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的广泛影响和商业潜力将解决清洁能源和电子市场对战略材料新来源的迫切需求。美国是钴的主要消费国，钴是可充电锂离子电池的关键成分。在未来五年内，电动汽车的快速增长将导致市场发生巨大变化，成为这种关键材料最大和增长最快的最终用途。预计需求的增加，加上全球供应的不稳定和扩大采矿生产的困难，使我们的钴供应面临高风险。如果有可行的回收技术，废弃的锂离子电池可以成为钴的一个可行的二次来源。实现高效、低成本的锂离子电池回收将为我们的美国制造商提供安全的钴来源，具有巨大的社会影响，在空气排放和气候保护方面提供高净效益，并鼓励收集高优先级废物。这项技术的商业影响将推动清洁能源技术的进一步创新，使人类能够随时随地使用能源，而不受关键金属供应的限制。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将为锂离子电池市场提供回收技术，帮助解决电子和清洁能源领域的钴供应危机。目前，除了大型、昂贵、耗能的湿法冶金和火法冶金工艺外，还没有可行的钴分离和捕获方法。虽然这些技术运行良好，但它们需要高昂的资金和材料运输成本。这里提出的技术为分离和回收氧化钴提供了一种新的有效方法，可以在先进制造中直接再利用，设计占地面积小，因此可以将其添加到现有的回收和制造过程中以捕获这些金属，而无需大量的前期资本成本。这个SBIR项目的研究目标是证明使用即插即用、高通量电化学沉积方法从锂离子电池废料中回收钴的可行性。为了实现这一目标，我们将利用高表面积、柔性碳材料来提高我们工艺的选择性和效率。与现有的回收技术相比，预期的技术成果包括成本降低5-10倍，二氧化碳排放量减少1-4倍，最终将我们当前的废物重新定义为资源，为美国市场提供安全的钴来源。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will address a critical need for a new source of strategic materials for the clean energy and electronics markets. The U.S. is a major consumer of cobalt, a critical component in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries. Over the next five years, the rapid increase in electric vehicles on the road will cause a drastic shift in the market, becoming the largest and fastest growing end-use of this critical material. This projected increase in demand, combined with the unstable global supply and difficulties with scaling mining productions, puts our cobalt supply at high risk. Discarded lithium ion batteries could be a viable secondary source of cobalt if viable recycling technologies were available. Achieving efficient, low-cost recycling of Li-ion batteries will facilitate a secure source of cobalt for our U.S.-based manufacturers with large societal impact, offering a high net-benefit concerning air emissions and climate protection, and incentives for collecting high priority waste. The commercial impact of this technology will enable further innovation for clean energy technologies where humans ability to literally wield power where and when they want it that will not be limited by the availability of critical metals.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will provide a recycling technology for the li-ion battery market, helping to solve the supply crisis for cobalt in the electronics and clean energy sector. Currently, there are no viable alternatives for cobalt separation and capture, except for large, expensive, and energy consumptive hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes. While these techniques work well, they require high capital and material transportation costs. The technique proposed here provides a new and efficient method for separating and reclaiming cobalt oxide for direct reuse in advanced manufacturing, designed with a small footprint so that it can be added onto existing recycling and manufacturing processes to capture these metals, without large upfront capital cost. The research objectives of this SBIR project will demonstrate feasibility of recovering cobalt from Li-ion battery waste using a plug-and-play, high-throughput electrochemical deposition method. To achieve this, we will utilize high surface area, flexible carbon material to enhance the selectivity and efficiency of our process. The anticipated technical results include a 5-10x reduction in cost and 1-4x reduction in CO2 emissions compared to incumbent recycling technologies, ultimately redefining our current wastes as resources, providing a secure source of cobalt to the U.S. market.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.