A review of lithium supply and demand and a preliminary investigation of a room temperature method to recycle lithium ion batteries to recover lithium and other materials

摘要

Recent publications have discussed the potential for scarcity of materials needed for future engineering designs and manufacture [1, 2, 3]. In the case of a recent DOE report [1], materials needed for the production of green energy technologies were deemed as those needing study. A major conclusion of these papers is that there is a need for recycling of materials that are designated as strategic or have a potential of becoming scarce. Lithium is one such material. It is critical to the battery industry, especially in compact consumer electronics (e.g. mobile phones and tablets) and in hybrid electrical and fully electrical vehicles. In this paper the role of lithium in electronics and vehicles is reviewed. Also reviewed are the reserves, projected mining capacity, and forecasted demand for lithium. Based on these three, it is predicted that there will be a shortage of lithium between 2021 and 2023 if lithium is not recycled [4]. Current lithium ion battery technologies recover little if any lithium and are energy intensive since they incinerate or shred batteries after they have been cooled in liquid nitrogen. This paper showcases a preliminary experiment where a battery was discharged by immersion in brine and safely opened manually. Pristine copped and the external protection circuit were easily recovered intact. Future experiments will attempt to recover lithium, aluminium, and the electrolyte with the aim of developing a method of recycling at room temperature that recovers all valuable materials, especially lithium.