Lithium-Ion Black Mass Extraction With Recycled Lithium Fractions
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Hydrometallurgical processes for recovering metals from lithium-ion battery black mass face significant lithium losses, which need to be reduced to enhance recovery efficiency and simplify waste treatment.
Innovation Solution
A method involving leaching steps with recycled lithium-containing fractions, acid leaching using sulphuric acid, and metal separation processes, including solvent extraction and precipitation, to recover lithium and other transition metals like nickel, cobalt, and manganese, with a focus on recycling lithium precipitates to increase yield and reduce waste effluent lithium levels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of substance
If conventional hydrometallurgical processes are used for metal separation, then transition metals can be recovered, but lithium losses occur during the process
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the discarding and recovering principle by collecting lithium-containing fractions that would normally be discarded as waste effluents and recycling them back to the leaching step. This closes the material loop, preventing lithium loss and increasing overall recovery yield.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by monitoring lithium-containing fractions throughout the process and redirecting them back to the leaching step. This feedback mechanism ensures that lithium is continuously recovered and reused, minimizing losses and maximizing productivity.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If metal separation steps are performed to recover transition metals, then valuable metals are obtained, but lithium ends up in waste effluents requiring treatment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the harmful presence of lithium in waste effluents into a benefit by recycling these effluents back to the leaching step. What was previously a waste stream requiring treatment becomes a valuable source of recoverable lithium, eliminating the need for complex waste treatment.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of discarding lithium-containing waste effluents to treatment facilities, the patent recovers and recyclers them back into the process, transforming a waste management problem into a resource recovery opportunity.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The method significantly increases lithium recovery yield, reduces lithium in waste effluents, and simplifies waste treatment by recycling lithium-containing fractions, thereby improving the overall efficiency and environmental impact of metal extraction from lithium-ion battery black mass.
Implementation Method 1
acid leaching to solubilize the cathode metals
Implementation Method 2
acid leaching to solubilize the cathode metals, and prepare them for recovery
Data Source
AI summary
A method for extracting metals from the black mass of lithium-ion batteries, the black mass containing the anode and cathode materials of the batteries, and the cathode material including lithium and nickel. An arrangement is provided that is suitable for use in the method.