Leaching of valuable metals from cathode active materials in spent lithium-ion batteries by levulinic acid and biological approaches

Tao Jiang, Qiantao Shi, Zheng Wei, Kevin Shah, Haralabos Efstathiadis, Xiaoguang Meng, Yanna Liang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Recycling of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is of paramount importance for the sustainable development of consumer electronics and electric vehicles. This study comparatively investigated two eco-friendly leaching methods for recovering Li, Ni, Co, and Mn from waste NCM523 (LiNi0.5Co0.2Mn0.3O2) cathode materials in spent LIBs, i.e., chemical leaching by a green organic solvent, levulinic acid (LA) and bioleaching by an enriched microbial consortium. In chemical leaching, mathematical models predicting leaching efficiency from liquid-to-solid ratio (L/S; L/kg), temperature (°C), and duration (h) were established and validated. Results revealed that LA of 6.86 M was able to achieve complete leaching of all target metals in the absence of reductants at the optimal conditions (10 L/kg, 90 °C, and 48 h) identified by the models. The evaluation of direct one- and two-step and indirect bioleaching indicated that the latter was more feasible for metal extraction from waste NCM523. L/S was found to impact the indirect bioleaching most significantly among the three operating variables. Pretreatment of waste NCM523 by washing with 1 vol% methanesulfonic acid significantly improved indirect bioleaching. The side-by-side comparison of these two leaching approaches on the same cathode active material (CAM) thus provided the technical details for further comparison with respect to cost and environmental impact.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere15788
JournalHeliyon
Volume9
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 2023

Keywords

  • Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans
  • Bioleaching
  • Cathode active materials
  • Levulinic acid
  • Spent lithium-ion batteries
  • Valuable metals

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