Leaching

Example

See it in the plant

1. Charge: 13.18 t of black mass goes into the tank with 17.95 t of sulfuric acid and 1759 kg of hydrogen peroxide, 1.2× the stoichiometric floor.
2. Dissolve: stirred and heated, the metals go into solution (2 LiMO₂ + 3 H₂SO₄ + H₂O₂ → Li₂SO₄ + 2 MSO₄ + 4 H₂O + O₂). 98% of the nickel, 98% of the cobalt, 98% of the manganese, 99% of the lithium dissolves.
3. Filter: what does not dissolve stays on the cloth: 6037 kg of residue, mostly graphite and carbon. The liquid, 6331 kg of leach solution, goes on to purification.
4. Vent: 810 kg of gas leaves the tank, oxygen from the peroxide and vapour, to the scrubber.

Use in Lemonergy

Distinguish recovered material from a qualified product.

This is a reference concept. No executable Lemonergy block has been verified for this term.

Connected concepts

Related concepts from the knowledge graph. Connections show context, not cause and effect. Hover or focus a linked term for its definition.

Bioleaching

Leaching metals with acids produced by bacteria or fungi instead of added mineral acid. It uses less energy and chemistry but is slow, and remains at laboratory and pilot scale for batteries.

Black mass

The dark powder of mixed electrode materials left after end-of-life cells are discharged, shredded and separated from their casings, foils and separators. It is the traded intermediate that hydrometallurgical refiners buy.

Deep eutectic solvent

A mixture of two cheap compounds, such as choline chloride and urea, that melts far below either component and can dissolve metal oxides. It is studied as a milder, recyclable leaching medium for cathode materials.

Hydrometallurgy

Recycling by dissolving black mass in acid and separating the metals as salts by precipitation and solvent extraction. It recovers lithium and gives battery-grade products, at the cost of chemical consumption and wastewater.

Impurity removal

Removing copper, iron and aluminium from the leach liquor before the valuable metals are separated, typically by cementation and by raising the pH until their hydroxides precipitate. Battery-grade products need impurities in the parts per million.

Solvent extraction

Separating metals in the leach liquor by contacting it with an organic phase carrying an extractant that picks up one metal at a time, controlled by pH: manganese, then cobalt, then nickel, leaving lithium in the water. It is how recyclers reach battery-grade sulfates.

References & further reading

Technical references

1. Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles

   Gavin Harper et al. · Nature · 2019

   Technical reference · Reuse, disassembly and mechanical, hydro-, pyro- and direct recycling routes.

Further reading on this topic

These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.

2. Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

   Topic background · Battery construction, recycling routes and U.S. waste-management context.