Method of leaching metal-containing materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024352553-A1
Application number	US-202218569142-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jun 9, 2022
Priority date	Jun 11, 2021
Publication date	Oct 24, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

Methods are disclosed for leaching metal-containing materials, such as those contained in the cathode of spent lithium-ion batteries, using a leach solution of an amino acid and a reducing agent. The metal-containing material is treated with the leach solution to recover at least one metal. For example, when the metal-containing material is lithium cobalt (III) oxide (LiCoO2), leaching with the leach solution of the present invention enables the recovery of the lithium and/or cobalt metal.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method of leaching a metal-containing material (e.g., ore, concentrate, etc.), the method comprising:
a) forming a leach solution by dissolving at least one amino acid and a reducing agent in water; b) forming a mixture of the leach solution of step (a) and a metal-containing material; c) leaching at least one metal from the metal-containing material by heating the mixture of step (b) in a temperature range from about 20° C. to about 100° C. or about 10° C. to about 95° C.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal-containing material comprises LiCoO 2 .

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one metal leached from the metal-containing material comprises lithium, cobalt, manganese or nickel (e.g, for battery recycling, using the present invention the metals leached may be manganese and/or nickel).

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one amino acid is chosen from glycine, histidine and lysine.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein a concentration of the glycine in the leach solution is in a range from about 0.01M to about 2.0M, or from about 0.3 M to about 1.5 M, or even about 0.5 M.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the reducing agent is sodium metabisulfite.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein a concentration of the sodium metabisulfite in the leach solution is in a range from about 0.1M to about 2.0 M, or from about 0.1 M to about 1.0 M, or even about 0.5 M.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising adjusting the pH of the leach solution to a pH from about 1 to about 14, or from about 3 to about 7, or even from about 4.5 to 5.5.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal-containing material is leached for a duration of about 10 minutes to about 180 minutes, or about 1 hour to about 96 hours.

10 . A method of recovering metal from a spent lithium-ion battery cathode, the method comprising:
a) separating the cathode components comprising separating an aluminum foil in the cathode from a lithium containing material to recover one or more lithium compounds; b) forming a leach solution by dissolving glycine and sodium metabisulfite in water; c) forming a mixture of the leach solution of step (b) and said lithium containing material from step (a); d) leaching at least lithium and/or cobalt from the lithium containing material by heating the mixture of step (c) in a temperature range from about 20° C. to about 100° C.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the separating in step (a) comprises physical separating using a method comprising crushing, milling, and/or air/gravity separation and collecting resulting or separated said lithium containing material (e.g. LiCoO 2 ).

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said metal-containing material is an ore or concentrate.

13 . The method of claim 1 , said temperature range is from about 10° C. to about 95° C.

14 . A method for leaching nickel and/or manganese from used batteries, the method comprising:
a) separating a nickel and/or manganese containing material from the used battery; b) forming a leach solution by dissolving at least one amino acid and a reducing agent in water; c) forming a mixture of the leach solution of step (b) and the nickel and/or manganese containing material; d) leaching at least nickel and/or manganese from the nickel and/or manganese containing material by heating the mixture of step (c) in a temperature range from about 20° C. to about 100° C. or about 10° C. to about 95° C. wherein said at least one amino acid is chosen from glycine, histidine and lysine.

15 . The method of claim 14 , wherein said a reducing agent is sodium metabisulfite (SMB).

16 . The method of claim 14 , said temperature range is from about 10° C. to about 95° C.

17 . The method of claim 14 , wherein said lithium containing material comprises LiCoO 2 .

Assignees

• Univ Arizona

Inventors

• Lee Jaeheon
• Wu Jiajia

Classifications

• H01M10/54

  Reclaiming serviceable parts of waste accumulators · CPC title

• C22B47/00

  Obtaining manganese · CPC title

• C22B26/12

  Obtaining lithium · CPC title

• C22B23/0461

  by chemical methods · CPC title

• C22B23/0407

  Leaching processes · CPC title