Method and apparatus for recycling lithium-ion batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022131204-A1
Application number	US-202217572079-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jan 10, 2022
Priority date	Apr 4, 2012
Publication date	Apr 28, 2022
Grant date	—

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 of recycling batteries comprising:
obtaining solid battery components from lithium ion batteries; separating charge materials from the solid battery components, the charge materials including charge material metals of one or more of Ni, Mn, and Co; leaching the charge materials to obtain a solution with a first pH of a first pH range to precipitate impurities from the solution; adding one or more metal salts to the solution, the metal salts having metal cations corresponding to the charge material metals, to adjust a relative ratio of the charge material metals in the solution to a selected ratio; and precipitating a cathode material precursor from the solution, the cathode material precursor having the selected ratio.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein leaching the charge materials to obtain the solution includes adding one or more of an acid and a reducing agent.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
precipitating the cathode material precursor as a metal hydroxide form of the charge material metals to generate precipitated metal hydroxides, and combining the precipitated metal hydroxides with a lithium salt to form a cathode material.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein a ratio of Ni:Mn:Co in the cathode material precursor corresponds to the selected ratio of the charge material metals in the solution.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein precipitating the cathode material precursor includes increasing a pH of the solution to a second pH of a second pH range, the second pH higher than the first pH by at least twofold.

6 . The method of claim 5 wherein the first pH range is based on an ability to precipitate impurities including one or more of iron and copper while leaving the charge material metals in solution.

7 . The method of claim 5 wherein the second pH range is based on an ability to precipitate hydroxides of the charge material metals.

8 . The method of claim 5 wherein the first pH range is between 3-5 and the second pH range is between 10 and 13.

9 . 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 the pH of the solution to co-precipitate the metals at the selected ratio while maintaining the solution below 80° C.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein maintaining the solution below 80° C. includes maintaining a structure of the co-precipitated metals.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein raising the pH of the solution to co-precipitate the metals includes maintaining the metals commingled in the solution during precipitation.

12 . A method for obtaining a cathode material with a selected ratio of metallic elements from recycled battery electrode materials, comprising:
leaching the metallic elements from the recycled battery electrode materials with a solution including sulfuric acid and a reducing agent, the solution having a pH within a pH range; adjusting concentrations of the metallic elements to the selected ratio using additional quantities of the metallic elements, the additional quantities sourced from refined materials; and adjusting the pH to acidic levels for removing impurities and to basic levels to precipitate the metallic elements for the cathode material.

13 . The method of claim 12 wherein the refined materials include substantially pure metal sulfates.

14 . The method of claim 12 , wherein adjusting the pH to the acidic levels includes increasing the pH of the solution to a first, acidic pH to precipitate the impurities, and wherein adjusting the pH to the basic levels includes increasing the pH of the solution to a second, basic pH.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein increasing the pH of the solution to the second, basic pH includes increasing the pH at least two times higher than the first, acidic pH.

16 . The method of claim 15 wherein the second, basic pH is between 10.5-13.0.

17 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the first, acidic pH is between 3-5 based on an amount of iron in the solution for precipitating Fe(OH) 3 .

18 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the first, acidic pH is less than 7 for precipitating Cu from the solution.

19 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the selected ratio of metallic elements includes one or more of Ni, Mn, Co as Ni x Mn y Co z (OH) 2 where x, y and z represent molar ratios of the respective metallic elements.

20 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the pH for leaching the metallic elements is lower than the first, acidic pH.

Assignees

• Worcester Polytech Inst

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

• Y02W30/84

  Recycling of batteries or fuel cells · CPC title

• Y02P10/20

  Recycling · CPC title

• Y02E60/10

  Energy storage using batteries · CPC title

• C01G53/50

  of the type (MnO2)n-, e.g. Li(NixMn1-x)O2 or Li(MyNixMn1-x-y)O2 · CPC title