Method for recycling lithium batteries and/or electrodes of such batteries

A method for recycling lithium battery electrodes and/or lithium batteries, the method comprising:

• a) grinding a lithium battery electrode, a lithium battery, or both, to yield organic components;
• b) dissolving the organic components in an organic solvent, thereby obtaining a first suspension comprising undissolved metals;
• c) separating the undissolved metals present in the first suspension, to yield a separated suspension;
• d) filtering the separated suspension with a filter press, thereby obtaining a solid mass retained on a first filter and a first filtrate comprising the organic solvent,
• e) recovering the solid mass retained on the first filter, and suspending the solid mass in water, thereby obtaining an aqueous suspension comprising sedimented or coagulated materials and carbon-containing material in an aqueous medium;
• f) recovering the sedimented or coagulated materials, resuspending the sedimented or coagulated materials in water to form a resulting suspension, and adjusting the pH of the resulting suspension to a pH below 5;
• g) filtering the resulting suspension with a filter press, thereby obtaining a second filtrate and a solid fraction retained on a second filter;
• and
• h) separating iron by precipitating at least one iron phosphate, and separating lithium by precipitating a lithium salt.