Wet Lithium Battery Sorting for Graphite and Metal Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for recycling lithium batteries are inefficient and environmentally harmful, as they fail to effectively separate and recycle key materials like graphite, copper, aluminum, and cathode material powder from waste lithium batteries, leading to resource waste and pollution.
Innovation Solution
A wet sorting process combining reselection, magnetic separation, and flotation is employed to recycle graphite, copper, aluminum, and cathode material powder from calcined and crushed waste lithium batteries, utilizing wet ball milling, screening, and magnetic separation to achieve high recovery rates with low costs and safety.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional recycling methods are used for waste lithium batteries, then the process is simple, but the separation efficiency of key materials (graphite, copper, aluminum, cathode material powder) is low and environmental pollution occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The recycling process is divided into multiple sequential stages: wet ball milling to separate cathode and anode materials, screening to classify particle sizes, magnetic separation to extract ferromagnetic materials, and flotation to separate non-ferromagnetic materials. Each stage targets specific materials, progressively improving separation efficiency while managing complexity through modular processing steps
Solution Approach 2:
The process utilizes changes in physical parameters of materials during processing: particle size reduction through ball milling, density differences during screening and flotation, magnetic susceptibility during magnetic separation, and surface properties during flotation. These parameter changes enable effective separation of different battery materials that are initially mixed together
2Loss of substance
If effective separation of all key materials is achieved, then resource recovery rate increases to 90-95%, but the process requires multiple treatment steps including wet ball milling, screening, magnetic separation, and flotation
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple separation mechanisms are combined into an integrated process flow: wet ball milling combines mechanical grinding with wet chemistry, magnetic separation combines with flotation in sequence, and screening operations are integrated between stages. This merging of different separation techniques achieves comprehensive material recovery (90-95%) while organizing complexity into a systematic multi-step process
Solution Approach 2:
Water serves as an intermediary medium throughout the process, enabling wet ball milling, facilitating particle suspension and classification during screening, supporting magnetic separation operations, and providing the fluid environment necessary for flotation. The intermediary role of water allows different separation mechanisms to function effectively in sequence
3Reliability
If wet ball milling is used to separate cathode and anode materials, then separation effectiveness improves, but energy consumption and water usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The process replaces high-energy mechanical separation methods with a combination of wet chemistry and gravity-based separation. Wet ball milling uses chemical reactions in aqueous solution to facilitate material separation, reducing the mechanical energy required compared to dry grinding. Subsequent screening and flotation operations rely on gravity and density differences rather than high-energy mechanical forces
Solution Approach 2:
Flotation operations utilize hydraulic principles to separate materials based on density and surface properties. Air bubbles are introduced into the aqueous slurry, and materials with different hydrophobicity and density characteristics attach to bubbles and rise to the surface, enabling separation without high-energy mechanical input
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 process achieves recycling rates of 90% to 95% for key materials, with 99% recovery of cobalt and nickel, and 99% recovery of manganese, while reusing circulating water, thus effectively addressing resource utilization and environmental pollution.
Implementation Method 1
magnetic separation
Implementation Method 2
flotation
Implementation Method 3
Under the continuous grinding action between the steel balls, cathode and anode material powders covered on a surface of a current collecting plate in the sorting material of the waste lithium battery drop
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are a wet sorting process for a waste lithium battery and application thereof, which belong to the field of battery material recycling. The wet sorting process includes the following steps of carrying out wet ball milling on a sorting material of a waste lithium battery to obtain a ball-milled product, screening the ball-milled product to obtain a coarse-grained screened material, a medium-grained screened material and a fine-grained screened material, carrying out wet ball milling, screening, magnetic separation and table concentration on the medium-grained screened material to obtain copper, aluminum and a steel shell, and carrying out flotation, magnetic separation and table concentration on the fine-grained screened material to obtain cathode material powder, graphite, copper and aluminum.