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

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力包括提供一个高通量系统，用于回收钴等关键金属，以减少用于生产制造材料的传统能源密集型采矿和精炼过程。最重要的是，该项目将有助于确保关键材料的供应，减少美国对外国供应链的依赖，并保证电池材料的二次来源。新的国内供应还将减少与手工采矿有关的社会和人类健康影响，并大大减少电池和电动汽车对环境的影响。SBIR二期项目旨在：(1)在电池回收和钴开采领域验证新型电萃取纳米分离技术；(2)为这一快速增长的市场验证一种新的增值产品（电池阴极前体材料），使传统的精炼阶段变得不必要。提出的电萃取工艺利用水流电解产生高浓度的局部氢氧化物，以金属氢氧化物的形式沉淀过渡金属。这种理解将允许调整金属或混合金属特定沉淀的设备操作条件，例如，电池化学计量学中Ni-Mn-Co氢氧化物的沉淀或单个金属的高选择性沉淀。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 II project includes providing a high-throughput system for recycling critical metals like cobalt to reduce the conventional energy-intensive mining and refining processes used to produce materials for manufacturing today. Most importantly, this project will help secure a supply of critical materials, reducing the United States’ reliance on foreign supply chains and guaranteeing a secondary source of battery materials. A new, domestic supply will also reduce the social and human health impacts associated with artisanal mining, and significantly reduce the environmental impact of batteries and electric vehicles.This SBIR Phase II project proposes to (1) validate novel electro-extraction nanotechnology based separations technology in the battery recycling and cobalt mining space, and (2) validate a new, value-added product (a battery cathode precursor material) for this rapidly growing market, rendering the conventional refining stages unnecessary. The proposed electroextraction process utilizes flow-through water electrolysis to produce high local concentrations of hydroxide to precipitate transition metals as metal hydroxides. This understanding will allow tuning the device operating conditions for metal or mixed-metal specific precipitation, for example, the precipitation of Ni-Mn-Co hydroxides at battery stoichiometries or highly selective precipitation of individual metals.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.