Method and apparatus for recycling lithium-ion batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11769916-B2
Application number	US-202217964555-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2022
Priority date	Apr 4, 2012
Publication date	Sep 26, 2023
Grant date	Sep 26, 2023

Abstract

Cathode material from exhausted lithium ion batteries are dissolved in a solution for extracting the useful elements Co (cobalt), Ni (nickel), Al (Aluminum) and Mn (manganese) to produce active cathode materials for new batteries. The solution includes compounds of desirable materials such as cobalt, nickel, aluminum and manganese dissolved as compounds from the exhausted cathode material of spent cells. Depending on a desired proportion, or ratio, of the desired materials, raw materials are added to the solution to achieve the desired ratio of the commingled compounds for the recycled cathode material for new cells. The desired materials precipitate out of solution without extensive heating or separation of the desired materials into individual compounds or elements. The resulting active cathode material has the predetermined ratio for use in new cells, and avoids high heat typically required to separate the useful elements because the desired materials remain commingled in solution.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for obtaining electrode material precursor with a selected ratio of metals from recycled lithium ion batteries, comprising
leaching electrode materials of the recycled lithium ion batteries to obtain a solution including metals, each having a respective concentration;
adjusting the concentrations of the metals with additional metal salts; and
raising a pH of the solution to co-precipitate the metals at the selected ratio while maintaining the solution below 80° C.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein maintaining the solution below 80° C. includes maintaining a structure of the co-precipitated metals.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein raising the pH of the solution to co-precipitate the metals includes maintaining the metals commingled in the solution during precipitation.

Assignees

• Worcester Polytech Inst
• Ascend Elements Inc

Inventors

• Wang Yan
• Apelian Diran
• Zou Haiyang

Classifications

• C01G53/82

  Compounds containing nickel, with or without oxygen or hydrogen, and containing two or more other elements · CPC title

• H01M10/54 Primary

  Reclaiming serviceable parts of waste accumulators · CPC title

• C22B1/24

  Binding; Briquetting {; Granulating} · CPC title

• C22B7/007

  by acid leaching · CPC title

• C22B23/043

  Sulfurated acids or salts thereof · CPC title