What do you do with your lithium batteries when you want to replace them or when they are no longer usable? Will you just throw them in the trash or will you take them to a recycling center. When you want to throw the lithium battery into the trash, do you think it is too wasteful. In this article, we will introduce you to how lithium batteries will be disposed of and the related issues.

The significance of lithium battery recycling:

Most lithium-ion batteries contain only common metals such as lithium, iron and copper, and only some of them will contain nickel and cobalt. All of these metals can be recycled in some way. However, the cost of recycling these metals can be several times higher compared to mining new materials directly, especially with lithium, which is a common and cheap metal. As a result, the recycling rate for lithium batteries has been very low for many years.

However, lithium-ion battery waste that is not recycled can be very damaging to the environment, and failure to recycle for long periods of time may lead to material shortages in the future.

1. How to deal with lithium batteries?

Direct reuse:

The principle of direct recycling is to directly remove the cathode and anode inside the lithium-ion battery, repair the electrode materials by mixing metal oxides, and then put these electrode materials into new batteries for use. Considering the loss of battery electrodes in the process of use, it is usually necessary to add lithium elements in the process of repairing electrode materials. Although the shape and state of the electrode crystals will not be changed after repair, this recycling method is only applicable to lithium-ion batteries with shorter use time and better performance, for batteries with higher depletion, the cost of repair and the reporting rate will be far lower than buying brand new lithium-ion batteries directly.

Dismantling and recycling:

For lithium batteries that can’t be simply repaired and reused, professional organizations will dismantle the lithium batteries after recycling, dismantle the lithium batteries into different parts and chemicals, and then extract the lithium batteries into useful chemicals, such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and other metal elements again. This not only reduces the waste of metal resources, but also reduces the impact of metal substances inside the lithium battery.

Pyrometallurgical Recovery

Pyrometallurgical method refers to the reduction of metal oxides in lithium-ion batteries into corresponding alloys through high temperature. This recycling method is currently the most widely used in the industry, the most mature technology. And this recycling method can be carried out simultaneously with other different types of batteries, which is conducive to improving the recycling efficiency. It is worth noting that after melting the entire lithium-ion battery at a high temperature, the product is a mixture of alloy and other substances, and at this time the hydrometallurgical method is generally used to separate out the metal oxides at the same time.

Hydrometallurgical metal recovery

Hydrometallurgical metal recovery refers to the use of a solution to extract the metal from the battery. Industry typically uses concentrated sulfuric acid as the metallurgical solution, along with the oxidizing agent hydrogen peroxide to increase the reaction rate. After the metallic material is raised, gradient precipitation can be carried out to gradually separate the different metals by varying the concentration of hydrogen ions required to form a precipitate for each metal.

It is worth noting that when using hydrometallurgy for the recovery of lithium-ion batteries, the efficiency of the recovery depends to a large extent on the concentration of the leach solution, the time and temperature of the leaching, and the reductant selected. As a result, a large amount of leach solution is usually required when using this method for battery recovery, which results in high recovery costs. At the same time, due to the complexity of the metal composition in the battery, the final separation of metals by gradient precipitation also has a certain degree of difficulty.

Environmental treatment:

For lithium batteries that cannot be recycled again, they need to be treated in an environmentally friendly way. The main treatment processes are separation of electrolyte, crushing, high temperature incineration or smelting, etc., in order to reduce the leakage of hazardous substances within the lithium battery, polluting the environment.

Categorization:

For different kinds of lithium batteries in the treatment will be different. So the lithium battery treatment of lithium battery classification, according to its type of classification treatment. This can improve the efficiency of lithium battery treatment, but also to ensure that each type of lithium battery treatment is thorough enough to ensure the safety of the treatment process.

Landfill:

If the above ways to deal with lithium batteries are not feasible, for the waste of lithium batteries can also be landfilled. But before the landfill, need to strictly follow the environmental standards, so as not to cause pollution to the environment. However, it should be noted that the landfill of lithium batteries does not mean that they can be put into the landfill together with ordinary garbage, please do not dispose of lithium batteries directly in ordinary garbage bins.

Other Recycling Methods

Other methods of recycling lithium-ion batteries include physical material separation and bio-metal recycling.

Physical separation refers to first pulverizing various types of materials by machinery, and then separating the pulverized materials by utilizing the different physical properties of different components for separate recycling. The remaining materials that cannot be clearly separated need to be further separated.

Bio-metal recycling refers to the use of microorganisms to digest metal oxides to achieve bioleaching. These separated metal oxides are then reduced to produce metal particles. However, this method is still in the preliminary stage of experimentation, and further research is needed for large-volume industrial use.

2. Where can I treat lithium batteries?

Professional treatment of lithium batteries company:

waste lithium batteries can not be used is not able to discard, in fact, lithium batteries have a lot of material can be utilized. Some companies specializing in the treatment of lithium batteries will specialize in the treatment of used lithium batteries from which to gain benefits.

The original manufacturer of lithium batteries:

For lithium batteries can not be used, you can contact the original manufacturer of lithium batteries. Generally speaking, these lithium batteries can be returned to the factory, and the manufacturer can provide raw materials for the production of lithium batteries by extracting usable chemicals.

Waste disposal center:

If there is a waste disposal center near you, you can also send the used lithium batteries directly to the waste disposal center, they usually will be incinerated at high temperature, melting or landfill, which may be more convenient, but the metal inside the lithium batteries is directly wasted. There is also the possibility of environmental pollution.

Household Hazardous Materials Treatment Centers:

Some governments will collect hazardous materials from households to help dispose of them, including lithium batteries. Usually, the government will set up a location within the community to recycle these items year-round. However, some areas may also have regular hazardous materials disposal events. This is largely based on the local government, and of course there are some areas that don’t have home hazardous materials disposal centers.

3. Can lithium batteries be recycled?

Lithium batteries can be recycled. There are 3 important strategies in the current market for used lithium batteries. They are nano-microbubble system to deal with lithium iron phosphate batteries, ternary deep eutectic melt recycling ternary lithium batteries, bamboo wood chips pyrolysis recycling ternary lithium batteries. This is mainly for lithium batteries in the classification of treatment, professional processors will choose the best treatment according to the type of lithium batteries, to reduce the pollution of the environment.

4. Where can I recycle lithium batteries?

Community recycling bins:

For lithium batteries, which have important recycling value, each community will set up special recycling bins to recycle them. In addition to this reason, lithium batteries may cause fires if placed with other recyclable items.

Stores that recycle lithium batteries:

Many chain stores and large stores recycle lithium batteries on behalf of their users. Stores will recycle lithium batteries for free, but some will charge a fee for recycling lithium batteries, but not much. The main purpose of these stores is to help us dispose of these lithium batteries. However, some merchants may limit the number of lithium batteries to be recycled so that we can reduce the use of lithium batteries.

Conclusion:

There are various ways to dispose of lithium batteries and you can dispose of lithium batteries as soon as possible through the above mentioned locations. However, it is inevitable that lithium batteries will be contaminated in the process of disposal. When you choose to buy lithium batteries. You will be able to purchase lithium iron phosphate batteries. They will have a longer service life and less pollution will be generated during the disposal process.