STTR Phase I: A Closed Loop Process for the recycle of End-of-Life Li-ion Batteries

这个小企业技术转移一期项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是提高锂离子电池的回收率和效率，以及降低锂离子电池正极材料的成本。该研究项目将通过从广泛的锂离子电池中回收阴极材料来实现这些目标，而不考虑尺寸、形状或化学成分。通过降低正极材料的成本，该项目有可能使绿色技术更可行，使能源储存更实惠。该项目将寻求开发一种从废锂离子电池中回收活性正极材料的新方法，而不需要任何分类。从废旧锂离子电池中回收活性正极材料是锂离子电池回收利用的关键进展，因为正极材料是电池中最昂贵的部分。这一进步至关重要，因为传统的回收工艺只能从电池中回收单个金属。回收正极材料也比合成原始正极材料需要更少的能量。该项目旨在提供低成本的正极材料，同时减少电池行业的碳足迹。该一期研究项目的技术目标是通过开发控制颗粒形态和增加颗粒密度的方法来提高回收阴极材料的电化学性能。这些改进将提高阴极材料的容量和循环寿命。将密切监测控制杂质去除的条件，以促进从杂质水平与原始材料相似的废锂离子电池中生产正极材料。工艺回收效率也将得到优化。该工艺将从1公斤扩大到50公斤，这将为Battery Resourcers LLC提供足够的材料进行独立测试。除了从废锂离子电池中回收活性正极材料外，还将回收钢、铜、铝和塑料。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project is to improve the recycling rates and efficiency of lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries, as well as lower the cost of cathode materials for Li-ion batteries. This research project will accomplish these goals by recovering cathode material from a broad spectrum of Li-ion battery regardless of size, shape or chemistry. By lowering the cost of cathode materials, this project has the potential to make green technologies more viable by making energy storage more affordable. This project will seek to develop a novel method of recovering active cathode materials from spent Li-ion batteries that does not require any sorting. The recovery of active cathode materials from spent Li-ion batteries is a key advancement for Li-ion battery recycling because the cathode material is the most expensive part of the battery. This advancement is critical because traditional recycling processes only recover individual metals from the batteries. Recovering the cathode material also requires less energy than synthesizing virgin cathode materials. This project seeks to be able to offer low cost cathode materials while reducing the carbon footprint of the battery industry.The technical objectives of this Phase 1 research project are to improve the electrochemical performance of the recovered cathode materials by developing methods to control the particle morphology and increase the particle density. These improvements will increase the capacity and cycle life of the cathode materials. The conditions that control impurity removal will be closely monitored to facilitate producing cathode materials from spent Li-ion batteries with impurity levels similar to virgin materials. The process recovery efficiency will also be optimized. The process will be scaled from 1kg to 50kg which will provide enough material for Battery Resourcers LLC to have its material independently tested. In addition to recovering active cathode materials from spent lithium ion batteries, steel, copper, aluminium and plastics will also be recovered.