Cascade utilization and dismantling recycling are important ways to recycle decommissioned lithium-ion batteries.
For retired power lithium-ion batteries, those who take the road of tiered utilization are to recycle materials after the tiered utilization; for direct material recycling, the batches are too small, there is no history to check, and the safety monitoring is unqualified, etc.
The pursuit of economic benefits is the driving force behind corporate and social behavior. It is reasonable to say that the value of the battery can be maximized by cascade utilization, until the available value of the lithium-ion battery is reduced to less than the maintenance cost, and then recycling of raw materials. But the actual situation is that the traceability of early power lithium batteries is poor, and the quality and model are uneven. In the early stage, the risk of cascade utilization of batteries is high, and the cost of eliminating risks is high. Therefore, it can be said that in the early stage of power lithium battery recycling, the most likely destination of batteries is the recovery of raw materials.
Valuable metal extraction method of positive electrode material:
The current power lithium-ion battery recycling does not actually achieve the comprehensive recycling and reuse of various materials on the entire battery. The types of cathode materials mainly include: lithium cobalt oxide, lithium manganate, ternary lithium, lithium iron phosphate, etc.
The cost of the positive electrode material of the battery accounts for more than 1/3 of the cost of the single battery, and because the negative electrode currently uses more carbon materials such as graphite, lithium titanate Li4Ti5O12 and silicon carbon negative electrode Si/C are less used, so the current battery recycling technology is mainly aimed at It is the recycling of battery cathode material.
There are three main types of recycling methods for waste lithium-ion batteries: physical method, chemical method and biological method. Compared with other methods, hydrometallurgy is considered as an ideal recovery method due to its advantages of low energy consumption, high recovery efficiency and high product purity.
Hydrometallurgy:
Hydrometallurgy is a method of selectively dissolving cathode materials in spent lithium-ion batteries with suitable chemical reagents and separating metal elements in leachate.
1. Cascade utilization can realize the secondary application of retired power lithium-ion batteries in the field of energy storage. The downstream application space is huge, and it is also a recycling method that the policy focuses on supporting. Car companies and battery factories have inherent advantages, but they also face the dilemma of high recycling costs for retired batteries. At the same time, this approach has extremely high requirements on battery consistency, and some demonstration projects are currently in operation;
2. Dismantling and recycling is an important current way of recycling decommissioned lithium-ion batteries. Among them, wet recycling has the highest degree of commercialization, and battery material manufacturers such as GEM, AVIC Lithium, and Bangpu have all made arrangements. The price of raw materials generally rises. Under the background, locking the price of upstream raw materials through recycling + production will be an important way for battery material manufacturers to reduce costs in the future.
At present, the main recycling bodies of power lithium-ion batteries mainly include small recycling workshops, professional recycling companies and government recycling centers. The recycling system with power lithium battery production companies or electric vehicle companies as the main body has not yet appeared.
If the waste lithium iron phosphate battery is not recycled, it will bring huge environmental pollution. On the other hand, the efficient recovery of metals and the utilization of surplus energy can also bring considerable economic benefits.
