(22a) Recycling of Spent Lithium-Ion Battery: Direct-Recycle-Reuse (DR2) Process

Lithium ion battery has become a leading technology for energy storage. However, these batteries are expected to last 2-10 years. After reaching the end of their life cycles, these batteries are new to the recyclers and present new challenges to the industry. An ability to separate and recover reusable battery electrode materials is essential to close the loop of material use in lithium-ion batteries. In this work, we introduce a novel physical separation system for recovering reusable components from spent Li-ion batteries. This new process is named as direct-recycle-reuse (DR2) process. We have demonstrated that froth flotation separates anode and cathode materials from spent Li-ion batteries using kerosene as the collector. The separation efficiency was significantly improved using a fine grinding process, at which the surfaces of anode materials restored the hydrophobicity. Gravity concentrators including shaking tables, teeter-bed separators, and spirals, were found to be effective in separating current conductors in water due to the differences in specific gravities between two materials. The result obtained from the techno-economic analysis of the DR2 process will be discussed in comparison of existing pyrometallurigical and hydrometallurgical processes.