A new technology using electrochemistry to efficiently separate and recover the metals in spent batteries could prove to be a highly sustainable secondary source of cobalt and nickel – the worldwide reserves of which are rapidly dwindling.
Worldwide consumption of electronic devices has led to a sharp increase in waste batteries. Spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) contain critical elements, such as lithium (5-8 per cent); cobalt (5–20 per cent); nickel (5–10 per cent), and manganese (10–15 per cent). Nickel–metal hydride batteries also possess a high content of nickel (36–42 per cent) and cobalt (3–5 per cent).
Future demand for such critical elements, especially cobalt and nickel, has been predicted to exceed identified reserves and there are increasing geographical, environmental and political pressures related to primary mining operations. This means there is urgent pressure to develop sustainable strategies to recover critical elements from the potentially valuable secondary resources.
However, it is difficult to separate the valuable metals inside spent lithium-ion batteries from each other for recycling purposes and current methods used for their separation have environmental and efficiency drawbacks.
A new technology uses electrochemistry to efficiently separate and recover the metals, making spent batteries a highly sustainable secondary source of cobalt and nickel and easing the pressure on their dwindling natural reserves.
The study, led by Xiao Su, a chemical...
Read Full Story: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2021/11/sustainable-electrochemical-process-could-revolutionise-lithium-ion-battery-recycling/
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