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

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是通过从废旧锂离子电池中收集关键金属来创造可靠，经济可行和具有成本效益的钴，镍和锰的国内供应。现代基础设施、交通和通信都需要这些关键金属。如今，美国每年消耗的钴有78%来自进口，但仅能满足5%的含钴锂离子电池的需求。在这些电池中用镍和锰取代钴会使这些金属的供应面临风险。该项目提出了一个简单的回收过程，以创造供应链的稳定性，通过回收商和减少潜在危险的锂离子电池的填埋来增加经济活动。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）第一期项目旨在验证锂离子电池回收的新方法，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，以实现可扩展和高效的钴回收，废电池中的镍和锰CDI是使用多孔电极从进料溶液中去除带电物质的新兴工艺。这项工作通过将吸附剂材料整合到阴极中来将CDI与有效的金属硫化物吸附剂配对，以有效地从黑色物质浸出液中回收关键金属。虽然CDI通常涉及碳阴极，但金属硫化物吸附剂由于其显著的稳定性、吸附能力和预期的对铸造的顺从性而被选择用于表面掺杂。拟议的工作将：2）构建电容去离子池，其中吸附剂材料集成到阴极中以增加回收率;和3）证明回收对钴，镍，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过评估被认为值得支持使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.