Increasing electric vehicle (EV) production may help reduce greenhouse gasses and global emissions, but manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for such a broad range of products may present different problems in the near future. Found in nearly all electrical devices and EVs, lithium-ion batteries have become a part of our everyday lives. However, when it’s time to dispose of these power sources, recovering and recycling precious metals from lithium-ion batteries isn’t easy.
EV development, production, and sales have spiked in recent years. Unfortunately, with that influx, researchers project that end-of-life lithium-ion EV batteries will rise to 1M tons by 2028. That staggering number only emphasizes the fact that we need to find a more efficient and effective way to recycle lithium-ion batteries.
Currently, recyclers use pyrometallurgical and hydro-metallurgical processes to recover materials in cobalt-rich batteries. Unfortunately, these procedures don’t work well with iron phosphate and manganese oxide-based lithium-ion units. For those batteries, a direct recycling method is used wherein the recyclers separate and rejuvenate the active metals for reuse.
To find the most effective means of separating the battery’s materials, researchers turned to a froth flotation process. Initially used in mining operations, froth flotation selectively separates hydrophobic and hydrophilic materials. Using this method, researchers were able to separate pristine lithium nickel–manganese–...
Read Full Story: https://www.rideapart.com/news/542039/new-lithium-battery-recycling-process/
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.