70% of Lithium From Batteries Recovered at Low Cost

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has developed a recycling method that can recover up to 70% of lithium from battery waste without using corrosive chemicals or high temperatures, and without prior sorting of materials. This innovative method combines mechanical processes with chemical reactions and is suitable for the cost-effective, energy-efficient, and environmentally friendly recycling of all types of lithium-ion batteries. The findings of this research have been published in Communications Chemistry.

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in our daily lives, not only for powering small devices such as notebooks, smartphones, toys, and remote controls, but also as essential energy storage systems for the rapidly growing electric mobility sector. As the use of these batteries increases, the demand for economically and ecologically sustainable recycling methods becomes imperative.

Currently, nickel and cobalt, copper and aluminum, as well as steel are primarily recovered from battery waste for reuse, while lithium recovery remains expensive and unprofitable. The existing recovery methods mostly rely on metallurgical processes that consume large amounts of energy and/or produce hazardous by-products. In contrast, mechanochemical approaches based on mechanical processes that induce chemical reactions hold promise for achieving higher yields and greater sustainability at a lower cost.

The Energy Storage Systems Department of KIT’s Institute for Applied Materials (IAM-ESS), the Helmholtz Institute Ulm for Electrochemical Energy Storage (HIU), and EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG have jointly developed a method for lithium recovery. The new method can achieve a lithium recovery rate of up to 70% without the use of corrosive chemicals, high temperatures, or prior sorting of materials. “The method can be applied for recovering lithium from cathode materials of various chemical compositions and, hence, for a large range of commercially available lithium-ion batteries,” says Dr. Oleksandr Dolotko of IAM-ESS and HIU, the first author of the publication. “It enables inexpensive, energy-efficient, and environmentally compatible recycling.”

The researchers use aluminum as a reducing agent in the mechanochemical reaction, which is already present in the cathode, eliminating the need for additional substances. The method works by first grinding the battery waste, followed by reacting it with aluminum to form metallic composites with water-soluble lithium compounds. Lithium is then recovered by dissolving these compounds in water and heating the solution to evaporate the water. Since the mechanochemical reaction occurs at ambient temperature and pressure, the method is highly energy-efficient.

Furthermore, the method is simple, making it suitable for industrial-scale use, as large numbers of batteries will need to be recycled in the near future.