Bio-Carbon Assisted Carbothermal Reduction Process for the Recovery of Lithium and Cobalt from the Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

The increase in demand for lithium-ion batteries is due to their usage in many electronic gadgets and electric vehicles. Recycling spent lithium-ion batteries plays an essential role in reducing environmental pollution and material and economic scarcity. In this paper, we employed an efficient and environmentally friendly bio-carbon based carbothermal reduction followed by a water leaching process to recover lithium and cobalt from LiCoO₂(LCO)-based lithium-ion batteries. Here, the carbonized flamboyant pods (CFP) are used as a reducing agent for the carbothermal reduction process. During the carbothermal reduction process, the bio-carbon converts LiCoO₂ into Co₃O₄ and Li₂CO₃. Afterwards, lithium is leached out by deionized water with a leaching efficiency of 98%, leaving Co in the residue as Co₃O₄. This residue is further undergoing a smelting process to recover 98.5% of Co as Co₃O₄. This carbothermal green recovery process is energy conserving, environmentally friendly and will bring perspective for sustainable recycling of LIBs with a minimized secondary waste.

Graphical Abstract