SBIR Phase I: Recovery of Critical Metals from Lithium Ion Battery Black Mass

SBIR 第一阶段：从锂离子电池黑料中回收关键金属

• 批准号: 2029799
• 负责人: Catherine Kollhoff
• 金额: $ 25.6万
• 依托单位: NUMIX Materials Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-12-01 至 2022-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2029799&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Recovery; Critical; Metals

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the creation of a reliable, economically viable, and cost-effective domestic supply of cobalt, nickel, and manganese by harvesting critical metals from spent lithium ion batteries. These critical metals are needed in modern infrastructure, transportation and communication. Today, the United States imports 78% of cobalt it consumes annually but recycles only 5% of cobalt-containing lithium-ion batteries. Replacing cobalt with nickel and manganese in these batteries puts supply of those metals at risk. This project proposes a straightforward recovery process to create supply chain stability, more economic activity through recyclers and less landfilling of potentially dangerous lithium ion batteries. The project aims to create standalone processing units that can be added to existing battery processing to create a refined source of these key metals for domestic use.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project seeks to validate a new approach to lithium ion battery recycling by integrating a metal sulfide sorbent technology into a capacitive deionization (CDI) electrochemical system for scalable and efficient recovery of cobalt, nickel, and manganese from spent batteries. CDI is an emerging process for removing charged species from a feed solution using porous electrodes. This work pairs CDI with efficient metal-sulfide sorbents by integrating the sorbent material into the cathodes for efficient recovery of critical metals from black mass leach solution. While CDI has typically involved carbon cathodes, metal sulfide sorbents have been selected for surface doping owing to their remarkable stability, adsorption capacity, and expected amenability to casting. The proposed work will: 1) demonstrate viable cation uptake from black mass into the sorbent material; 2) construct a capacitive deionization cell with the sorbent material integrated into the cathode for increased recovery; and 3) demonstrate recovery with appropriate selectivity toward cobalt, nickel, and manganese separations from black mass using a novel CDI cell.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.

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是通过从废锂离子电池中收集关键金属，创造可靠、经济上可行、成本效益高的国内钴、镍和锰供应。现代基础设施、交通和通讯都需要这些关键金属。如今，美国每年消耗的钴中有78%是进口的，但只有5%的含钴锂离子电池是回收的。在这些电池中，用镍和锰代替钴会使这些金属的供应面临风险。该项目提出了一个直接的回收过程，以创造供应链稳定性，通过回收商增加经济活动，减少潜在危险锂离子电池的垃圾填埋。该项目旨在创建独立的处理单元，可以添加到现有的电池处理中，以创建这些关键金属的精炼来源，供国内使用。这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在通过将金属硫化物吸附剂技术集成到电容去离子（CDI）电化学系统中，以验证锂离子电池回收的新方法，该系统可扩展且有效地从废电池中回收钴、镍和锰。CDI是一种利用多孔电极从进料溶液中去除带电物质的新兴工艺。这项工作将CDI与高效的金属硫化物吸附剂配对，通过将吸附剂材料整合到阴极中，以有效地从黑色浸出溶液中回收关键金属。虽然CDI通常涉及碳阴极，但由于金属硫化物吸附剂具有卓越的稳定性、吸附能力和预期的铸造性能，因此选择金属硫化物吸附剂进行表面掺杂。建议的工作将：1)证明从黑色物质中吸收阳离子进入吸附剂材料的可行性；2)构建电容去离子电池，将吸附材料集成到阴极中，以提高回收率；3)利用新型CDI电池对黑色物质中钴、镍和锰的分离具有适当的选择性。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。