Tech Briefs Magazine - December 2023 - BET-22
New Technique for Environmentally Friendly Battery
Recycling
The method allows recovery of 100 percent of the aluminum and 98 percent of the lithium in EV batteries.
Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
R
esearchers at Chalmers University
of Technology, Sweden, have created
a new and efficient way to
recycle metals from spent electric vehicle
(EV) batteries. The method allows
recovery of 100 percent of the aluminum
and 98 percent of the lithium in EV
batteries. At the same time, the loss of
valuable raw materials such as nickel,
cobalt, and manganese is minimized.
No expensive or harmful chemicals
are required in the process because
the researchers use oxalic acid - an
organic acid that can be found in the
plant kingdom.
" So far, no one has managed to find
exactly the right conditions for separating
this much lithium using oxalic
acid, whilst also removing all the aluminum.
Since all batteries contain aluminum,
we need to be able to remove
it without losing the other metals, "
said Léa Rouquette, PhD student at the
Department of Chemistry and Chemical
Engineering at Chalmers.
In Chalmers' battery recycling lab,
Rouquette and research leader Martina
Petranikova have shown how the new
method works. The lab has spent car
battery cells and, in the fume cupboard,
their pulverized contents. This takes the
form of a finely ground black powder
dissolved in a transparent liquid -oxalic
acid.
Rouquette produced both the powder
and the liquid in something reminiscent
of a kitchen mixer. Although it looks as
easy as brewing coffee, the exact procedure
is a unique and recently published
scientific breakthrough. By fine-tuning
temperature, concentration and time,
the researchers have come up with a
remarkable new recipe for using oxalic
acid - an environmentally friendly
ingredient that can be found in plants
such as rhubarb and spinach.
" We need alternatives to inorganic
chemicals. One of the biggest bottlenecks
in today's processes is removing
residual materials like aluminum. This
is an innovative method that can offer
the recycling industry new alternatives
and help solve problems that hinder
development, " said Martina Petranikova,
Associate Professor at the Department
of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
at Chalmers.
The aqueous-based recycling method
is called hydrometallurgy. In traditional
hydrometallurgy, all the metals in an
EV battery cell
are
dissolved in an
inorganic acid. Then, you remove the
" impurities " such as aluminum and copper.
Lastly, you can separately recover
valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel,
manganese, and lithium.
Even though the amount of residual
aluminum and copper is small, it
requires several purification steps and
each step in this process can cause
lithium loss. With the new method,
the researchers reverse the order and
recover the lithium and aluminum first.
Thus, they can reduce the waste of
valuable metals needed to make new
batteries.
The latter part of the process, in
which the black mixture is filtered, is
also reminiscent of brewing coffee.
While aluminum and lithium end up
in the liquid, the other metals are left
in the " solids. " The next step in the
process is to separate aluminum and
lithium.
" Since the metals have very different
After the aqueous-based recycling method, the aluminum and lithium end up in the (greenish
blue) liquid. The other metals, such as cobalt, nickel and manganese, remain in the dark solids,
shown on the plate. (Image: Chalmers University of Technology, Anna-Lena Lundqvist)
22
properties, we don't think it'll be hard
to separate them. Our method is a
promising new route for battery recycling
- a route that definitely warrants
further exploration, " said Rouquette. " As
the method can be scaled up, we hope
it can be used in industry in future
years, " said Petranikova.
For more information, contact Karin
Wik at karin.wik@chalmers.se; +4631-772-2062.
Battery
& Electrification Technology, December 2023
Tech Briefs Magazine - December 2023
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