• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.315-326
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• 2021

Lithium ion battery (LIB) demands increase every year globally to reduce the burden on fossil fuels. LIBs are used in electric vehicles, stationary storage systems and various other applications. Lithium is available in seawater, salt lakes, and brines and its extraction using environmentally friendly and inexpensive methods will greatly relieve the pressure in lithium mining. Membrane separation processes, mainly nanofiltration (NF), is an effective way for the separation of lithium metal from solutions. Electrodialysis and electrolysis are other separation processes used for lithium separation. The process of reverse osmosis (RO) is already a well-established method for the desalination of seawater; therefore, modifying RO membranes to target lithium metals is an excellent alternative method in which the only bottleneck is the interfering presence of other metal elements in the solution. Selectively removing lithium by finding or developing suitable NF membranes can be challenging, but it is nonetheless an exciting area of research. This review discusses in detail about lithium recovery via nanofiltration, electrodialysis, electrolysis and other processes.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.31-37
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• 2024

The surge in demand for lithium is primarily fueled by the expanding electric vehicle market, the necessity for renewable energy storage, and governmental initiatives aimed at achieving carbon neutrality. This study proposes a straightforward method for lithium extraction utilizing cellulose nanofiber (CNF) via a vacuum filtration process. This approach yields a porous CNF film, showcasing its potential utility as a lithium extractor and indicator. Given its abundance and eco-friendly characteristics, cellulose nanofiber (CNF) emerges as a material offering both economic and environmental advantages over traditional lithium extraction techniques. Hence, this research not only contributes to lithium recovery but also presents a sustainable solution to meet the growing demand for lithium in energy storage technologies.

• Clean Technology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.87-94
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• 2023

The recovery of valuable metals from waste lithium-based secondary batteries is very important in terms of efficiently utilizing earth's limited number of resources. Currently, the cathode material of a LiFePO₄ battery, a type of battery which is widely used in automobiles, contains approximately 5% lithium. After use, the lithium in these batteries can be used again as a raw material for new batteries through lithium recycling. In this study, low-concentration sulfuric acid, a commonly used type of inorganic acid, was used to selectively leach the lithium contained in a waste LiFePO₄ cathode material powder. In addition, in order to compare and analyze the leaching efficiency and separation efficiency of each component, the optimalleaching conditions were derived by applying a two-step leaching process with pulp density being used as a variable during leaching. When leaching with pulp density as a variable, it was confirmed that at a pulp density of 200 g/L, the separation efficiency was approximately 200 times higher than at other pulp densities because the iron and phosphorus components were hardly leached at this pulp density. Accordingly, the pulp density of 200 g/L was used tooptimize the leaching conditions for the selective leaching and recovery of lithium.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.45-50
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• 2012

The room-temperature electrodeposition of metallic lithium was investigated from ionic liquid, 1-methyl-1-propylpiperidinium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (PP13TFSI) with lithium bis (trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (LiTFSI) as a lithium source. Cyclic voltammograms on gold working electrode showed the possibility of the electrodeposition of metallic lithium, and the reduction current on a gold electrode was higher than the value on platinum and copper. The metallic lithium could be electrodeposited on the gold electrode under potentiostatic condition at -2.4 V (vs. Pt-QRE) and was confirmed by analytical techniques including XRD and SEM-EDS. The dendrite-typed electrodeposits were composed of a metallic lithium and a alloy with gold substrate. And any impurity could be detected except for trace oxygen introduced during handling for the analyses.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.289-296
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• 2016

The availability of NMP, a solvent used in the manufacturing process of cathode material for lithium ion battery, depends on importation, and the price remains high because of the monopoly of BASF and ISP. For these reasons, most Lithium ion battery manufacturers reuse NMP after recovering it from the exhaust air in the drying process. In Korea, absorption method is mainly used for recovering NMP from the absorption tower using the hydrophilicity of NMP. However, this system has a few disadvantages, such as low purity (80％) of the recovered NMP and 100％ emission due to high water content of the treated gas. In this study, we develop a hybrid NMP recovery system by combining cooling condensation method with concentration method, by which it is possible to obtain an NMP recovery rate of 99.6％, and a high purity (96.1％) of the recovered NMP.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.21-32
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• 2023

Because the application of lithium has gradually increased for the production of lithium ion batteries (LIBs), more research studies about recycling using solvent extraction (SX) should focus on Li⁺ recovery from the waste solution obtained after the removal of the valuable metals nickel, cobalt and manganese (NCM). The raffinate obtained after the removal of NCM metal contains lithium ions and other impurities such as Na ions. In this study, we optimized a selective SX system using di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) as the extractant and tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) as a modifier in kerosene for the recovery of lithium from a waste solution containing lithium and a high concentration of sodium (Li⁺ = 0.5 ~ 1 wt%, Na⁺ = 3 ~6.5 wt%). The extraction of lithium was tested in different solvent compositions and the most effective extraction occurred in the solution composed of 20% D2EHPA + 20% TBP + and 60% kerosene. In this SX system with added NaOH for saponification, more than 95% lithium was selectively extracted in four extraction steps using an organic to aqueous ratio of 5:1 and an equilibrium pH of 4 ~ 4.5. Additionally, most of the Na⁺ (92% by weight) remained in the raffinate. The extracted lithium is stripped using 8 wt% HCl to yield pure lithium chloride with negligible Na content. The lithium chloride is subsequently treated with high purity ammonium bicarbonate to afford lithium carbonate powder. Finally the lithium carbonate is washed with an adequate amount of water to remove trace amounts of sodium resulting in highly pure lithium carbonate powder (purity > 99.2%).

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.27-39
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• 2022

The global demand for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has been continuously increasing since the 1990s along with the growth of the portable electronic device market. Of late, the rapid growth of the electric vehicle market has further accelerated the demand for LIBs. The demand for the LIBs is expected to surpass the supply of lithium from natural resources in the near future, posing a risk to the global lithium supply chain. Moreover, the continuous accumulation of end-of-life LIBs is expected to cause serious environmental problems. To solve these problems, recycling the spent LIBs must be viewed as a critical technological challenge that must be urgently addressed. In this study, recycling LIBs using pyrometallurgical processes and post-processes for efficient lithium recovery are briefly reviewed along with the major accomplishments in the field and current challenges.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.401-410
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• 2022

Demand for lithium hydroxide (LiOH) is annually increasing due to its efficiency and safety for the environment in comparison to its current alternatives. Lithium can be found in different salty and brine lakes which later synthesized to produce LiOH for various applications. Different methods are used to separate and recover lithium ions, the most common of which is electrodialysis (ED). ED is a membrane-based separation technique which works on potential difference of its layers as a driving force to push ions from one side to another. The ion exchange membrane (IEM) in ED makes the process efficient because of the perm selectivity of different ions vary depending on their hydrodynamic volume. In this review, the different alteration strategies of both ED and IEM, to enhance the recovery of lithium ions are discussed.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.3-18
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• 2019

Due to the increasing demand for clean energy, the consumption of lithium ion batteries (LIBs) is expected to grow steadily. Therefore, stable supply of lithium is becoming an important issue globally. Commercially, most of lithium is produced from the brine and minerals viz., spodumene, although various processes/technologies have been developed to recover lithium from other resources such as low grade ores, clays, seawaters and waste lithium ion batteries. In particular, commercialization of such recycling technologies for end-of-life LIBs being generated from various sources including mobile phones and electric vehicles(EVs), has a great potential. This review presents the commercial processes and also the emerging technologies for exploiting minerals and brines, besides that of newly developed lithium-recovery-processes for the waste LIBs. In addition, the future lithium-supply is discussed from the technical point of view. Amongst the emerging processes being developed for lithium recovery from low-grade ores, focus is mostly on the pyro-cum-hydrometallurgical based approaches, though only a few of such approaches have matured. Because of low recycling rate (<1%) of lithium globally compared to the consumption of lithium ion batteries (56% of lithium produced currently), processing of secondary resources could be foresighted as the grand opportunity. Considering the carbon economy, environment, and energy concerns, the hydrometallurgical process may potentially resolve the issue.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.62-69
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• 2013

A study on the recovery of lithium and leaching behavior of NCM powder by carbon reduction for NCM-system Li-ion battery scraps was conducted. First of all, the oxide powders of NCM-system with layer structure were decomposed by carbon, lithium was converted to lithium carbonate by carbon reaction at above $600^{\circ}C$. The lithium carbonate powders with 99% purity were manufactured by washing method with water and concentration process for NCM powder after carbon reduction. The reaction yield was approximately 88% at $800^{\circ}C$ by carbon reduction. At this time, leaching efficiency at 2M sulfuric acid concentration was over 99% for cobalt, nickel and manganese.