Method for recovering active metals from lithium secondary battery

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023238599-A1
Application number	US-202117929000-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	May 28, 2021
Priority date	Jun 1, 2020
Publication date	Jul 27, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

In a method for recovering active metals from a lithium secondary battery according to exemplary embodiments, a cathode active material mixture including a lithium composite oxide may be reacted with a reducing reaction gas under a pressurized condition and washed with water. In this case, a large amount of the cathode active material mixture may be treated within a shortened process time, and the active metal may be recovered with high yield and high efficiency.

First claim

1 . A method for recovering an active metal from a lithium secondary battery, the method comprising:
preparing a cathode active material mixture including a lithium composite oxide from a waste cathode of the lithium secondary battery; forming a preliminary precursor mixture by reacting the cathode active material mixture with a reducing reaction gas under a pressurized condition of 3 bar to 25 bar; and recovering a lithium precursor by performing water washing treatment on the preliminary precursor mixture.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein a reaction temperature with the reducing reaction gas is 420° C. to 500° C.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of reacting with the reducing reaction gas comprises supplying the reducing reaction gas into a reactor in a reaction time of less than 1 hour at 5 to 50 mL/min/g of cathode active material.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reaction with the reducing reaction gas is performed in a fixed bed reactor or a fluidized bed reactor.

5 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the reducing reaction gas includes hydrogen and a carrier gas, and
a concentration of the hydrogen in the reducing reaction gas is 10 to 40 volume %.

6 . The method according to claim 5 , wherein the carrier gas includes nitrogen or argon.

7 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of preparing of the cathode active material mixture comprises dry pulverizing the waste cathode.

8 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the lithium composite oxide contains nickel (Ni), cobalt (Co) and manganese (Mn).

9 . The method according to claim 7 , wherein the preliminary precursor mixture comprises preliminary lithium precursor particles and transition metal-containing particles, and
the transition metal-containing particles include Ni-containing particles, Co-containing particles and Mn-containing particles.

10 . The method according to claim 9 , further comprising precipitating the transition metal-containing particles through the water washing treatment.

11 . The method according to claim 9 , further comprising recovering a transition metal precursor in a form of an acid salt by selectively treating the transition metal-containing particles with an acid solution.

Assignees

• Sk Innovation Co Ltd

Inventors

• Hong Suk Joon
• Kim Ji Min
• Park Ji Yun
• Son Sung Real

Classifications

• H01M10/54 Primary

  Reclaiming serviceable parts of waste accumulators · CPC title

• C22B1/24

  Binding; Briquetting {; Granulating} · CPC title

• C22B5/12

  by gases · CPC title

• C22B26/12 Primary

  Obtaining lithium · CPC title

• Y02W30/84

  Recycling of batteries or fuel cells · CPC title