• litio
• carbonato di litio
• recupero
• riciclo
• batterie litio ferro fosfato
• sviluppo di processo
• riciclo
• LCA
• PFD
• process development
• lithium carbonate
• riciclo
• recovery
• cathode
• LFP batteries
• lithium

As a result of economic growth and rising living standards, the demand for automobiles is quickly rising and the usage of fossil fuels grows with it, leading directly to environmental pollution. The worldwide car industry is being encouraged to transition to more dependable and eco-friendly electric vehicles and energy storage devices (ESDs) are considered as a potential solution. Due to their great energy storage capacity and environmental friendliness, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) stand out among other ESDs as particularly interesting. The increased production of LIBs has been connected to the depletion of natural metal reserves, particularly Li, which drastically raises demand for overall lithium-related minerals. The widespread use of LIBs must result in an increase in the number of spent LIBs generated each year. There are several important compounds (Li, P, C, Ni, and Co) in those spent LIBs and their recovery could significantly reduce the need for critical raw material. Furthermore, improper disposal would be detrimental to the environment, in fact, some components of wasted LIBs, including organic flammable solvents and toxic salts, were designated as hazardous waste. To avoid damaging the environment and to recover important metals, spent LIBs must be recycled securely and properly. Europe is also moving in this direction, implementing new regulations and modifying directives on batteries and waste batteries, in order to keep up with the growth of this kind of waste. Particularly, the (UE) 2023/1542 regulation published on 12th of July 2023, has a section dedicated to the objectives and efficiencies that are supposed to be achieved in the next years. Specifically, it is written in the XII annex, that the recycle of 65% in average weight of lithium battery is assumed to be achieved by December 2025 and 50% of lithium is supposed to be recovered by December 2027. Considering the urgency, many companies started to look for possible solutions.
This work has been developed in collaboration with a lithium battery designer and producer company and with the research centre. It aims to develop a process for the recovery of lithium from spent batteries, specifically from LFP batteries. In particular, a detailed description of the chemistry and main characteristics of the LFP cell is described in the first chapters, then a Life Cycle Assessment of the production of a specific battery is also carried out. Starting from studying laboratory scale processes found in literature, different possible paths to pursue are evaluated. Subsequently, experimental tests are performed on laboratory scale. First, the battery is manually dismantled, and their components are separated in order to be recovered. The component of most interest is the cathode which contains lithium; therefore, it undergoes a series of pretreatment steps to be isolated from its support. Once the cathode is ready, an acid leaching step with sulfuric acid and hydrogen peroxide is tested several times to separate lithium from iron and phosphorous in a single step, and results are analysed. Then, a purification step is performed to eliminate impurities as copper, iron and phosphorous. Lastly, lithium is precipitated as lithium carbonate using sodium carbonate. Afterwards, a preliminary process on industrial scale is developed. The process is developed considering a scale of 1000 kg/h of pretreated cathode and it takes into account possible optimization parameters, energy efficiencies and waste disposal. A preliminary esteem of the operating costs is also given.