PROCESS FOR THE RECOVERY OF COBALT, LITHIUM, AND OTHER METALS FROM SPENT LITHIUM-BASED BATTERIES AND OTHER FEEDS

摘要

A processes is disclosed for the recovery of cobalt, lithium and associated metals from lithium-ion batteries, comprising (i) shredding and pulverising the batteries under an inert atmosphere, (ii) leaching the batteries with sulphuric acid and sulphur dioxide under reducing conditions with a sub-stoichiometric amount of acid, (iii) recovery of copper by cementation, (iv) purification of the leach filtrate to precipitate iron and aluminium, along with some of the manganese and nickel if they are at low levels in the feed battery, (v) ion exchange to remove residual copper, nickel and manganese, (vi) precipitation of the purified solution with soda ash to recover all of the cobalt, and (vii) recovery of lithium as carbonate.