Recovery of Li2CO3 from Spent LiFePO4 by Using a Novel Impurity Elimination Process

The large-scale implementations of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for energy storage systems have been gaining attention around the world due to their quality of high technological maturity and flexible configuration. Unfortunately, the exponential production of LFP batteries is accompanied...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-05, Vol.28 (9), p.3902
Main Authors: Chen, Wen-Lan, Chen, Chi, Xiao, Hao, Chen, Cheng-Wei, Sun, Dan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
alkali
Alkalis
Batteries
battery material recycle
Chemical precipitation
Efficiency
Electrochemistry
Energy consumption
Energy storage
Hydrometallurgy
Impurities
impurity elimination
Iron phosphates
Li2CO3
Lithium
Lithium carbonate
Purity
Raw materials
Recycled materials
Scanning electron microscopy
spent LiFePO4
Storage systems
Supply chains
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Summary:The large-scale implementations of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for energy storage systems have been gaining attention around the world due to their quality of high technological maturity and flexible configuration. Unfortunately, the exponential production of LFP batteries is accompanied by an annual accumulation of spent batteries and a premature consumption of the lithium resource. Recycling souring critical battery materials such as Li2CO3 is essential to reduce the supply chain risk and achieve net carbon neutrality goals. During the recovery of Li2CO3, impurity removal is the most crucial step in the hydrometallurgy process of spent LiFePO4, which determines the purity of Li2CO3. By investigating and comparing the results of impurity elimination from the purified Li+-containing liquids with strong and weak alkalis under identical pH conditions, respectively, a strategy based on an alkali mixture has been proposed. The purified Li+-containing liquid was, thereafter, concentrated and sodium carbonate was added in order to precipitate Li2CO3. As a result, a high purity Li2CO3 (99.51%) of battery grade was obtained. LiFePO4 prepared with the recovered Li2CO3 and FePO4 as raw materials also displayed a comparative high capacity and stable cycle performance to the commercial product and further verified the electrochemical activity of the recovered materials.
ISSN:1420-3049
1420-3049
DOI:10.3390/molecules28093902