recovery of critical raw materials from...
TRANSCRIPT
Recovery of Critical Raw Materials from Batteries
Emma Goosey1 2
, Karl Ryder1, Rachel Sapsted
1, Mark Foreman
3, Kathrina Bica
4, Lourdes Yurramendi
5, Amal Siriwardana
5, Sandrine Loïs
6, Sébastien Fantini
6
1Materials Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Leicester, [email protected],
2MTG Research Ltd,
3Chalmers University,
4University of Vienna,
5Tecnalia
6 Solvionic
Introduction
To limit environmental impacts caused by batteries the European
Commission in 2008, updated its regulations with the Batteries &
Accumulators Directive (2006/66/EC)1. This directive regulates
battery chemistries (restricting Hg, Cd, and Pb), collection and
disposal routes, and responsibilities, and recovery of materials from
waste batteries.
The EU battery market is set to grow considerably in the near future,
with a major contribution expected to come from the electric (and
hybrid) vehicles market.
The chemistries in batteries are quite diverse and ever changing. Thus
they can contain a large inventory of raw materials. For the EU,
recovering some of these materials can mean resource market stability,
reduced production costs and lower environmental impacts2.
Process for the Recovery of Raw Materials from Batteries
A proposed methodology (Figure 1.) for the recovery of materials from batteries uses DES to get the waste
material into solution and then, after filtration, employs task specific ionic liquids (TSILs) to selectively
retrieve metals from the DES. Once metals are transferred into the TSILs, the metals can be recovered
through electro-winning, precipitation and electro-deposition.
Once all materials have been retrieved, stripping of residues from the DES allows a final clean-up of the
solvent, which can then be reused at the start of the process. Essentially, the process is cyclic and allows
for the regeneration and reuse of all the DES and ILs. This process therefore produces very little waste,
reduces costs and has a lower environmental impact compared to typical hydro- (acid leaching) and pyro-
(incineration) metallurgical processes, which are currently used to recover materials from batteries.
A European project; CoLaBATS is midway through the process of designing and operating a pilot plant
for the recovery of Co and Ln from batteries with the use of DES and IL chemistries. A summary of the
developed chemistries is described below.
Hybrid Vehicle Market and Batteries
Hybrid vehicles can contain two types of batteries:
1. Industrial—power train (used to propel the vehicle),
2. Automotive—starter, lighter and ignition,
100% of batteries used in vehicles must be sent for recycling,
Lifetime of an industrial vehicle battery is ca. 5-10 years3
Recycling is the producers or suppliers responsibility and recycling
options include:
Repair—exchange of faulty cells for new ones,
Repurposing—good cells used for less-critical applications,
Recovery—extraction of useful materials,
The directive requires that >50% material recovery must be
achieved from recycled batteries (excluding the casing),
By 2030 an estimated 10 million vehicles on UK roads will be
hybrid/electric4.
Ionic Liquids & Deep Eutectic Solvents
Ionic liquids (IL) and deep eutectic solvents (DES) are categorised
as salt solutions in which the ions are poorly coordinated. Most
commonly used in green chemistry applications are room
temperature ionic liquids (RTILs). The physic-chemical properties
of some of these solvents are often what allows them to be thought of
as green chemicals5: - Liquid at < 100°C - Low vapour pressures
- High solute selectivity - Low combustibility - Thermal stability -Low toxicity - More environmentally benign
Conclusions and Expected Results
Novel DES and ILs have been created and are effective for the dissolution of metal mixtures.
The use of TSILs allows for specific recovery of individual metals, producing high grade raw materials
suitable for direct manufacturing use, and providing a higher return value for the producer.
The metals retrieved from the batteries can be used to alleviate EU supply needs, aid market stability and
prevent the use of conflict minerals.
The designed process allows different battery chemistries to be handled in one single facility.
The chosen DES and ILs are less toxic than traditional hydro-metallurgical chemistries.
Little waste is produced from the process as a by-product.
Recovery of materials from batteries exceeds the current threshold of 50%.
References
1 Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September
2006 on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators 2 DEFRA, 2012. Resource security action plan: making the most of valuable materials.
Department for Business Innovation and Skills. Available online: https://www.gov.uk/
government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/69511/pb13719-resource-
security-action-plan.pdf 3 Cairns, E.J., Albertus, P., 2010. Batteries for Electric and Hybrid-Electric Vehicles. Annu.
Rev. Chem. Biomol. Eng. 2010.1:299-320 4 Committee on Climate Change, 2014. Meeting carbon budgets, 2014 progress report to
parliament. Presented to Parliament pursuant to section 36(1). and 36(2) of the Climate
Change Act 2008. 5 www.leicester-ils.co.uk/research
Acknowledgements
The CoLaBATs project has received funding from the European
Union’s Seventh Programme for Research, technological
development and demonstration under grant agreement No
603482
For further project details go to: www.colabats.eu
Results
Metal content of shredded (black mass) lithium ion (Li
-ion) and nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries were
analysed via ICP-MS (Figure 2). Concentrations vary
between shredded batches depending on variety of
waste batteries collected, manufacturer specifications
and amount of impurity metals present.
Leaching of the metals from the battery black mass
were tested with a variety of different solvents
including DES (Figure 3). Preferential leaching of
individual elements varied between solvent type and
concentration.
Leaching efficiencies (Figure 4) increased with:
exposure time of black mass in DES
higher solvent temperatures
higher additive concentration (5– 25%)
However, leaching efficiency did not increase with
DES volume, and leaching could be optimised at 30:1
DES to black mass.
Figure 2. Metals in NiMH shredded batteries
Figure 1. CoLaBATS battery recycling process.
Figure 3. Metal leaching from shredded batteries using
different solvents
Figure 4. Metal leaching efficiency from 3—48 hours