Up to 70 percent of lithium can be recovered without the use of corrosive chemicals.
, such as nickel, cobalt, copper, and aluminum, can still be recycled, lithium recycling itself isn't economically feasible, resulting in battery makers reaching out for more mined lithium than recycled one.Conventionally, metal recovery is attempted largely using metallurgical methods. This often means that a large amount of energy needs to be spent to recover the material.
A collaboration between the researchers at KIT's Energy Storage Systems Department and Helmholtz Institute Ulm for Electrochemical Energy Storage in Germany used a mechanochemical approach for the recovery of lithium. In such an approach, mechanical processes are used to bring about chemical reactions that give much higher yields of desired products while consuming lesser energy and improving sustainability.While previous attempts at lithium recovery have required the prior sorting of materials, the new approach can be applied to the batteries directly, making it much more efficient.In this approach, the researchers at KIT and their collaborators used aluminum as a reducing agent.
The recovery process is also quite simple. The battery first needs to be ground where the material reacts with aluminum to form metallic composites. Lithium, which is water soluble, is recovered by mixing water with the ground mixture and then heating it separately to make the water evaporate. The researchers found that up to 70 percent lithium recovery can be achieved with this method, which does not require the use of corrosive chemicals or high temperatures. Since most of the process happens at normal room temperature and pressure, it is highly efficient.when a large number of batteries become available.The increasing lithium-ion battery production calls for profitable and ecologically benign technologies for their recycling.
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