Facile separation and regeneration of LiFePO from spent lithium-ion batteries via effective pyrolysis and flotation: An economical and eco-friendly approach.

The facile recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has attracted much attention because of its great significance to the environmental protection and resource utilization. Hydrometallurgical process is the most common method for recycling spent LIBs, but it is difficult to economically recover spent LiFePO batteries, because of the complicated metal separation process and low added value of its products. Herein, a novel and facile approach has been developed to achieve the direct regeneration of LiFePO from spent LIBs.

Pneumatic separation for crushed spent lithium-ion batteries.

Pneumatic separation was used to separate the valuable current collectors and harmful separators in spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) to avoid the plastic pollution caused by the separators in this study. Theoretical calculations for suspension velocities of the current collectors and separators indicate that they could be separated under special conditions. Furthermore, a special Z-shaped pneumatic separator was used to separate the current collectors and separators for the first time.

Pyrolysis and physical separation for the recovery of spent LiFePO batteries.

In this study, a novel process consisting of pyrolysis and physical separation was proposed to comprehensively recycle spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs). The discharge and pyrolysis behaviors of spent LIBs, the recovery of electrolyte from the spent LIBs by low-temperature volatilization, and the recovery of valuable materials from the pyrolytic residues through physical separation were studied in detail. The results indicated that approximately 99.