Development of Technology for Recycling Large-Capacity Lithium-Ion Batteries for EV, ESS

The use of lithium secondary batteries for electric vehicles is increasing rapidly. In order to recycle batteries for electric vehicles, the discharge process is essential. The lithium-ion battery pack that is 227 kg and is series with 12 modules is composed of 20% cover materials, 14.4% plastics, and 59% battery cells. Each module which is series with 11 unit cells is composed of 18% frame body, 12% heat-reduce plate, and 70% battery cells. The waste LIBs pack was prepared by physical treatment, including hand disassembly, electric discharging, drying, and crushing. In the leaching process, 1mol/L H2SO4 and 10vol% H2O2 are added to the sulfuric acid reduction leaching and waste water reduction leaching process, and Al, Cu, Fe, etc. contained as impurities are controlled to be less than 10mg/L by precipitation as a pH adjustment. The solution with controlled impurities is applied to the solvent extraction system process with PC88A to selectively separate and extract manganeses, cobalt, and nickel. Finally, lithium left in the solution was concentrated to 18g/L and then, was precipitated as Li2CO3 with efficiency over 88%.