PAMUKKALE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING SCIENCES-PAMUKKALE UNIVERSITESI MUHENDISLIK BILIMLERI DERGISI, cilt.29, sa.4, ss.384-400, 2023 (ESCI)
Wastes with high metal content are an important secondary source.
Utilization of these wastes is important offering environmental and economic
advantages as well as the conservation of natural resources. Due to the
widespread use of portable electrical and electronic devices (mobile phones,
laptops, video cameras, etc.) and electric cars, the consumption of lithium and
cobalt, which are used as main component in lithium-ion batteries/batteries
(LIB), has increased. Because LIBs contain lithium (1.5-7%), cobalt (5-20%),
manganese (15-20%), copper (8-10%), aluminium (5-8%), and nickel (5-10%), they
are considered as an important secondary source. Industrially, mechanical
pretreatment, pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical methods as alone or in
combination are used in the recovery of metals from waste LIBs. After
mechanical pretreatment and physical separation processes, hydrometallurgical
methods including solution purification, precipitation and solvent extraction
methods are used after leaching with inorganic such as H2SO4,
HCI and HNO3 or organic acids. In this study, processes for recovery
of metals from LIBs are discussed with critical review of studies carried out
on this. In addition, flowsheets of industrial applications for lithium/cobalt
recovery in the world are presented.