Impurity control in lithium-ion battery recycling
AssigneeBluegrass Infrastructure Partners Holdings, LLC
InventorsKee-Chan Kim, Eric Gratz
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Abstract
A method of producing a cathode material precursor having low levels of Cu impurities is described. Heat treating a black mass from a recycled lithium-ion battery stream, wherein the black mass comprises copper metal and cathode material comprising nickel, followed by leaching of the heat-treated black mass with an aqueous acid forms an acidic aqueous leach solution comprising nickel metal, cathode metal salts, and copper salts. The copper salts have been found to react with the nickel metal in the aqueous leach solution to form copper metal, which can be readily removed from the acidic aqueous leach solution. Coprecipitation of the cathode metal salts and the nickel salts form nearly Cu-free cathode material precursor.
Claims20
A method of producing a cathode material precursor from a recycled lithium-ion battery stream, comprising:
- heat treating a black mass from the recycled lithium-ion battery stream, the black mass comprising copper metal and cathode material comprising nickel;
- leaching the heat-treated black mass with an aqueous acid to form an acidic aqueous leach solution comprising nickel metal and cathode metal salts from the cathode material and copper salts from the copper metal;
- reacting the copper salts and the nickel metal in the aqueous leach solution to form copper metal and nickel salts;
- removing the copper metal from the acidic aqueous leach solution, and
- co-precipitating the cathode metal salts and the nickel salts from the acidic aqueous leach solution to form the cathode material precursor.
A method of producing a cathode material precursor from a recycled lithium-ion battery stream, comprising:
- heat treating a black mass from the recycled lithium-ion battery stream at a temperature greater than or equal to 500° C., the black mass comprising copper metal and cathode material comprising nickel,
- leaching the heat-treated black mass with an aqueous acid having a concentration of a water-soluble acid of from 25-65 wt % at a leaching temperature of from 20° C. to 100° C. to form an acidic aqueous leach solution;
- removing copper metal from the acidic aqueous leach solution, and
- co-precipitating cathode metal salts and nickel salts from the acidic aqueous leach solution to form the cathode material precursor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.