Développement d'un procédé hydrométallurgique pour le recyclage des batteries Li-ion

Details

Supervisors

Proost, Joris

Faculty

Ecole polytechnique de Louvain

Degree label

Master [120] : ingénieur civil en chimie et science des matériaux

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) currently play a major role in the energy transition to renewable energies and the electrification of the automotive market. But their development also implies an increase in spent batteries and battery scraps which must be recycled. Indeed, recycling LIB presents both economic and ecological opportunities. The biggest challenge concerns technical feasibility. This work was carried out in industry at Hydrometal, a Belgian company specialized in the hydrometallurgical recycling of non-ferrous metals. In this thesis, it was attempted to find a technical solution to reduce fluorine content in the black mass from 3%wt to 0,1%wt without losing valuable metals (Co, Ni, Mn, Li) as by-products. After a series of improvements in the experimental procedure, more than 90% of fluorine was removed from the black mass. This was possible by immersing the black mass in the water at a low solid-liquid ratio and helped by either mechanical stirrer and heat or ultrasounds. During this treatment, more than 60% of lithium was also dissolved in solution. Further processing was added to recover battery-grade lithium carbonate from this solution. From precipitated impure lithium carbonate, carbonation leaching allowed more than 75% final Li recovery as high purity lithium carbonate. It can be concluded that the results obtained are encouraging technically speaking. Economical profitability needs, however, to be assessed for the whole processing.