TY - JOUR
T1 - Leaching of valuable metals from cathode active materials in spent lithium-ion batteries by levulinic acid and biological approaches
AU - Jiang, Tao
AU - Shi, Qiantao
AU - Wei, Zheng
AU - Shah, Kevin
AU - Efstathiadis, Haralabos
AU - Meng, Xiaoguang
AU - Liang, Yanna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/5
Y1 - 2023/5
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans
KW - Bioleaching
KW - Cathode active materials
KW - Levulinic acid
KW - Spent lithium-ion batteries
KW - Valuable metals
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U2 - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15788
DO - 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15788
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85153593742
SN - 2405-8440
VL - 9
JO - Heliyon
JF - Heliyon
IS - 5
M1 - e15788
ER -