Design a Plant for Treatment of 10000 Lithium Ion Batteries

DESIGN A PLANT FOR TREATMENT OF 10000 LITHIUM ION BATTERIES

NAME: ABHIJEET SUBUDHI

ROLL NO. 14CHE1032

GUIDE: - PROF. Ashwin W. Patwardhan

INTRODUCTION

A lithium-ion battery or Li-ion battery (abbreviated as LIB) is a type of rechargeable battery in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during discharge and back when charging. Li-ion batteries use an intercalated lithium compound as one electrode material, compared to the metallic lithium used in a non-rechargeable lithium battery. The electrolyte, which allows for ionic movement, and the two electrodes are the constituent components of a lithium-ion battery cell. The use of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is expected to increase in the near future. The main reason for this will be the use of electric cars, which use LIBs as the power source. LIBs are also widely used in portable electronic devices (e.g. cellular phones and laptops). The popularity of LIBs is due to their high energy density, high voltages and low weight to volume ratio (Xu et al., 2008). LIBs have an expected lifespan of 3-5 years. Over the next few years, an increasingly large waste stream of LIBs is expected. LIBs contain toxic and flammable components, as well as valuable metals such as Li, Ni, Cu and Co. For these reasons, there are benefits to recycling used LIBs, instead of disposal in landfills.

According to the directives published in many countries, the adequate destination of spent batteries may involve methods such as landfill disposition, stabilization, incineration and/or

recycling processes. Safe disposal in landfills or stabilization of battery residues becomes more and more expensive due to the increasing amount of waste produced, and also due to the limited storage capacity of sanitary landfills and/or special waste dumpsites. Incineration of batteries is an expensive method as well and it can even cause mercury, cadmium and dioxin emissions into the environment.

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Fig 1. Waste management hierarchy is one presentation and recommendation of waste treatment options

In a closer examination, the level of recycling can be specified. When the recycled material can substitute a large share of virgin material in a new product and has properties close to the original quality, the level of recycling is considered high. Using the material in a commodity that has clearly lower quality or functionality than the original one is in turn referred to as “downcycling”. (Worrell 2014a, p. 499). It is hence thought that more of the original material value and the energy investments made for it are restored by higher level of recycling.

LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES

In an LIB, the cathode is an aluminium plate coated with the cathode material, which is a lithium metal oxide. The typical composition of LIBs is provided in Xu et al (2008). Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) is used to bind the electrode coating to the plate.

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Fig 2: Typical composition of an LIB

BATTERY RECYCLING

The recycling of LIBs has an enormous potential for economically strategic industrial metals. However, there is a growing amount of diverse lithium-ion subsystems, operating with different metals and lithium compounds in the cathode material. The Li-ion battery is named after the used cathode material such as LCO (lithium cobalt oxide), NCM (lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide), NCA (lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide) and LFP (lithium iron phosphate). As a result of missing industrial agreement on standards it is not possible to distinct these systems visually. This severely complicates the efficient recycling processes. Recycling processes for LIBs are combinations of different unit operations. Fig 3 summarizes possible process options for the involved unit operations such as deactivation, mechanical treatment, as well as the subsequent pyro- and hydrometallurgical treatments. The scheme displayed in Fig3 depicts the advantage of combining different unit operations in order to fulfill the goal of high recovery rates. Thus, the casing, copper and aluminum foil, and the most valuable components such as nickel, cobalt, and manganese can be recovered using a combination of mechanical and hydrometallurgical treatments.

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Fig 3. Unit operations in battery recycling and their possible combinations to establish efficient recycling process routes.

INDUSTRIAL PROCESS CHAINS

In the following section, some processes that aim to recycle LIBs are introduced. Both existing industrial scale processes and emerging processes in pilot plant phase or under commercialization are discussed. The often-used classification to hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes (Bernardes et al. 2004) or additionally to physical/mechanical processes.

1. Retriev Technologies Inc. (former Toxco Inc.)

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Fig 4. Flowchart of Toxco’s (Retriev Technologies Inc.) hydrometallurgical recycling process for LIBs.

2. Umicore (Val’Eas Process)

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Fig 5. Flowchart of Umicore’s pyrometallurgical recycling process for LIBs.

3. Recupyl

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Fig 6. Flowchart of Recupyl’s hydrometallurgical recycling process for LIBs.

4. Accurec

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Fig 7. Flowchart of Accurec’s recycling process for LIBs.

COMPARISON OF THE PROCESS