• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.767-772
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• 2012

In support of optimizing electrorefining technology for treating spent nuclear fuel, lithium drawdown has been investigated for separating actinides from molten salt electrolyte. Drawdown reaction selectivity is a major issue that requires investigation, since the goal is to remove actinides while leaving the fission products and other components in the salt. A series of lithium drawdown tests with surrogate fission product chlorides was run to obtain selectivity data with non-radioactive salts, develop a predictive model, and draw conclusions about the viability of using this process with actinide-loaded salt. Results of tests with CsCl, $LaCl_3$, $CeCl_3$, and $NdCl_3$ are reported here. Equilibrium was typically achieved in less than 10 hours of contact between lithium metal and molten salt under well-stirred conditions. Maintaining low oxygen and water impurity concentrations (<10 ppm) in the atmosphere was observed to be critical to minimize side reactions and maintain stable salt compositions. An equilibrium model has been formulated and fit to the experimental data. Good fits to the data were achieved. Based on analysis and results obtained to date, it is concluded that clean separation between minor actinides and lanthanides will be difficult to achieve using lithium drawdown.

• 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.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.24-36
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• 2024

The lithium-ion battery recycling process has been classified into direct recycling, hydrometallurgical process, and pyrometallurgical process. The commercial process based on the hydrometallurgical process produces black mass through pretreatment processes consisting of dismantling, crushing and grinding, heat treatment, and beneficiation, and then each metal is recovered by hydrometallurgical processes. Since all lithium-ion battery recycling processes under development conducts hydrometallurgical processes such as leaching, after the pretreatment process, to produce precursor raw materials, this article suggests a classification method according to the pretreatment method of the recycling process. The processes contain sulfation roasting, carbothermic reduction roasting, and alloy manufacturing, and the economic feasibility of the lithium-ion battery recycling process can be enhanced using unused by-products in the pretreatment process.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.11b
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• pp.86-91
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• 2005

A metal product obtained from an electrolytic reduction process, possesses less volume and radioactivity than those of the unprocessed spent oxide fuels. The chemical composition of the metal product varies according to the process condition. In this work, a basic study was performed to evaluate the chemical forms of the spent oxide fuel components in an electrolytic reduction process with the operation conditions. One of the most important operation conditions is the cell potential applied for the reduction cell. It is expected that $PU_{2}O_3$ is difficult to reduce even though the cell potential is negative enough to reduce the lithium oxide when the activity of $Li_{2}O$ exceeds 0.003. The reduction of actinide oxides via the reduction of $Li_{2}O$ is assumed to have a greater reduction yield than a direct reduction of the actinide oxides.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.767-767
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2002.05a
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• pp.270-270
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• 2002

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.8-15
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• 2012

Silicon-based thin film was prepared at room temperature by an electrochemical deposition method and a feasibility study was conducted for its use as an anode material in a rechargeable lithium battery. The growth of the electrodeposits was mainly concentrated on the surface defects of the Cu substrate while that growth was trivial on the defect-free surface region. Intentional formation of random defects on the substrate by chemical etching led to uniform formation of deposits throughout the surface. The morphology of the electrodeposits reflected first the roughened surface of the substrate, but it became flattened as the deposition time increased, due primarily to the concentration of reduction current on the convex region of the deposits. The electrodeposits proved to be amorphous and to contain chlorine and carbon, together with silicon, indicating that the electrolyte is captured in the deposits during the fabrication process. The silicon in the deposits readily reacted with lithium, but thick deposits resulted in significant reaction overvoltage. The charge efficiency of oxidation (lithiation) to reduction (delithiation) was higher in the relatively thick deposit. This abnormal behavior needs to clarified in view of the thickness dependence of the internal residual stress and the relaxation tendency of the reaction-induced stress due to the porous structure of the deposits and the deposit components other than silicon.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.225-231
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• 2021

The reaction between Li₂CO₃ and Cl₂ was investigated to verify its occurrence during a carbon-anode-based oxide reduction (OR) process. The reaction temperature was identified as a key factor that determines the reaction rate and maximum conversion ratio. It was found that the reaction should be conducted at or above 500℃ to convert more than 90% of the Li₂CO₃ to LiCl. Experiments conducted at various total flow rate (Q) / initial sample weight (W_i) ratios revealed that the reaction rate was controlled by the Cl₂ mass transfer under the experimental conditions adopted in this work. A linear increase in the progress of reaction with an increase in Cl₂ partial pressure (pCl₂) was observed in the pCl₂ region of 2.03-10.1 kPa for a constant Q of 100 mL·min^-1 and W_i of 1.00 g. The results of this study indicate that the reaction between Li₂CO₃ and Cl₂ is fast at 650℃ and the reaction is feasible during the OR process.

• Journal of Powder Materials
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.131-136
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• 2014

Cathode materials and their precursors are prepared with transition metal solutions recycled from the the waste lithium-ion batteries containing NCM (nickel-cobalt-manganese) cathodes by a $H_2$ and C-reduction process. The recycled transition metal sulfate solutions are used in a co-precipitation process in a CSTR reactor to obtain the transition metal hydroxide. The NCM cathode materials (Ni:Mn:Co=5:3:2) are prepared from the transition metal hydroxide by calcining with lithium carbonate. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy analyses show that the cathode material has a layered structure and particle size of about 10 ${\mu}m$. The cathode materials also exhibited a capacity of about 160 mAh/g with a retention rate of 93~96% after 100 cycles.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.12-20
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• 2022

The smelting reduction of spent lithium-ion batteries results in metallic alloys containing Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, and Si. A process to separate metal ions from the sulfuric acid leaching solution of these metallic alloys has been reported. In this process, ionic liquids are employed to separate Fe(III) and Cu(II). In this study, D2EHPA and Cyanex 301 were employed to replace these ionic liquids. Fe(III) and Cu(II) from the sulfate solution were sequentially extracted using 0.5 M D2EHPA with three stages of cross-current and 0.3 M Cyanex 301. The stripping of Fe(III) and Cu(II) from the loaded phases was performed using 50% (v/v) and 60% (v/v) aqua regia solutions, respectively. The mass balance results from this process indicated that the recovery and purity percentages of the metals were greater than 99%.