I-Corps: Recovery of lithium and related materials from spent lithium batteries and lithium battery industry electrode waste

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是开发锂电池回收工艺，以回收必需金属。随着对减少污染的推动和电动汽车等电动技术的采用，预计电池需求将随着电池浪费而增加。建议的流程可确保向本地锂电池市场可靠供应基本资源，以及安全有效地处理锂电池废物。此外，该过程可以在金属回收过程中节省成本，并有助于补充锂基储能技术制造所需的当地金属供应。提出的高效电池废物处理方法可能有助于防止不当的锂电池废物管理，并促进锂电池市场的可持续性。I-Corps项目的基础是开发一种回收过程，从与锂电池有关的废物中回收金属基材料。该工艺采用基于氢碘酸的溶液，通过浸出锂电池正极材料中的关键金属进行选择性回收。在传统的湿法冶金锂电池回收操作中，使用高温来改善过程动力学，并在浸出介质中添加还原剂来提高阴极金属的回收率。然而，这导致了与实现高温所需的能源和购买还原剂相关的成本。此外，这些系统还会产生有毒气体化合物，如氯、氮氧化物和硫氧化物。研究表明，在没有还原剂的情况下，在接近环境温度的条件下，这种方法回收金属的速度平均要快9倍，而且不会产生有毒气体。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 I-Corps project is the development of a lithium battery recycling process to recover essential metals. With the drive towards less pollution and the adoption of electric technologies such as electric vehicles, battery demand is predicted to increase along with battery waste. The proposed process may help to ensure the reliable supply of essential resources to the local lithium battery market as well as the safe and effective treatment of lithium battery waste. In addition, the process may allow for cost savings during the metal recovery process and aid in supplementing the local supply of metals for lithium-based energy storage technology manufacture. The proposed efficient battery waste process may serve to prevent improper lithium battery waste management and foster sustainability within the lithium battery market.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a recycling process for the recovery of metal-based materials from waste associated with lithium batteries. The proposed process applies a hydroiodic acid-based solution for the selective recovery via leaching of critical metals from lithium battery cathode material. In conventional hydrometallurgical lithium battery recycling operations, elevated temperatures are used to improve process kinetics and a reducing agent is added to the leaching media to improve cathode metal recoveries. However, this results in costs associated with energy requirements to achieve high temperatures and the purchase of reducing agents. In addition, these systems result in the production of toxic gaseous compounds such as chlorine, nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides. The proposed process has been shown to recover metals, on average, nine times faster, at temperatures close to ambient in the absence of a reducing agent, and without toxic gas production.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.