Lithium batteries not only can be recycled but must be recycled.
Why lithium batteries need to be recycled?
With the continuous development of new energy sources, more and more lithium batteries are being used, and with the increase in the application of lithium batteries, the amount of waste is also increasing, recycling has become an increasingly important issue. According to the data forecast, by 2030 lithium battery recycling accounted for 58% of all energy storage battery recycling, such a huge amount of waste if not recycled, not only cause waste of resources and economic loss, but also damage to the environment.
The main material of lithium battery is lithium iron phosphate of positive pole and carbon monomer of negative pole. Lithium batteries contain elements such as phosphorus, iron, lithium and other important metal elements, its recovery, can be secondary manufacturing, to achieve multiple use of energy, reduce the exploitation of resources.
In addition, no matter what the battery, if not recycled, some of its components may seep into the soil, contaminate groundwater, causing a huge impact on the environment, damage to the ecological and natural environment, and even through the cycle into the human body causing harm.
Lithium is an important scarce strategic reserve resources, and the recycling of batteries can reduce the national restrictions on this mineral, reduce dependence, promote the development of related industries, while reducing the exploitation of mineral resources in nature, to avoid the overexploitation of resources and resource development of the atmosphere, water pollution.
How to recycle lithium batteries?
For scientists, the most valuable lithium battery is its cathode material, and today there are two common ways to deal with: one is to recycle the metal, the other is to carry out the remanufacturing of lithium batteries.
1, the lithium battery should be discharged before decomposition. Most of the abandoned lithium batteries are not necessarily completely depleted, need to discharge it to avoid fire and other safety hazards.
2, first of all, it should be disassembled, divided into multiple parts. Lithium batteries compared to traditional lead-acid batteries, its internal structure is more complex, its dismantling is also more troublesome, at present, this work is still done by hand.
3, and then the positive electrode materials are crushed, so that they can be completely leached to improve the leaching rate.
4, and then immersed in the acid, will be dissolved in the acid, through other processes to get the required metal raw materials.
5, finally these recycled raw materials will be applied in other areas or used again in the manufacture of lithium batteries.
Today’s lithium battery recycling problems faced
Lithium iron phosphate batteries in the electrolyte has a strong corrosive, in the process of treatment is easy to cause harm to the staff. And today’s lithium battery recycling market is chaotic, there is no national unified laws or regulations on its control, can not get a better recovery results.
Meanwhile, compared with ordinary lead-acid batteries, lithium batteries are more complex, the dismantling process is cumbersome, and recycling is more difficult. Moreover, lead-acid batteries have been in use since 1860 and have more experience in recycling, while lithium batteries have only been commercially available since 1991 and do not have a too mature recycling process.
What’s more critical is that the cost of lithium recycling is far greater than the cost of extracting it using traditional processes, so not too many people are attempting to benefit from recycling lithium batteries the way they are.
