The present disclosure is directed to processes for separating a mixture of oxalates of two or more of Ni (nickel), Co (cobalt) and Mn (manganese). Such processes are useful, for example, to separate recovery of two or more of Ni, Co and Mn from used ithium ion batteries or from waste of the production of lithium ion batteries or of cells or components of lithium ion batteries.

Disclosed are applications of a carboxylic compound serving as an extracting agent and a metal ion extraction method. The carboxylic compound is provided with the structure as represented by formula I. The extracting agent as represented by formula I is characterized by a secondary atom at position α of the carboxyl group, in distinction from a primary carbon carboxylic acid at position α and a tertiary carbon carboxylic acid at position α, the presence of a secondary carbon carboxylic acid provides a proper steric hindrance, provides improved selectivity with respect to ions, and provides a high separation coefficient, low stripping acidity, and high load rate when used for the extraction and separation of metal ions; moreover, the carboxylic compound of formula I has great stability and low aqueous solubility, allows an extraction process to be stable, reduces environmental pollution, reduces costs, and provides significant application prospects.

Processes and systems for recovering metals from a lithium-ion battery waste stream include optionally conducting a leaching process to form a leachate stream, purifying the leachate stream in a first reactor to remove fluorine (F), phosphate (P), and one or more impurity metals selected from the group consisting of: copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), and titanium (Ti), separating nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), and cobalt (Co) from the purified filtrate liquid stream by passing the purified filtrate liquid stream into (i) a reactor for conducting a co-precipitation process by increasing pH or (ii) one or more chromatographic columns to generate an intermediate liquid stream comprising lithium (Li) and one or more recovered products comprising one or more of nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), and cobalt (Co). The intermediate liquid stream can be introduced into a lithium precipitation reactor to precipitate at least one compound comprising lithium (Li).

Processes and systems for recovering metals from a lithium-ion battery waste stream include optionally conducting a leaching process to form a leachate stream, purifying the leachate stream in a first reactor to remove fluorine (F), phosphate (P), and one or more impurity metals selected from the group consisting of: copper (Cu), aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), and titanium (Ti), separating nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), and cobalt (Co) from the purified filtrate liquid stream by passing the purified filtrate liquid stream into (i) a reactor for conducting a co-precipitation process by increasing pH or (ii) one or more chromatographic columns to generate an intermediate liquid stream comprising lithium (Li) and one or more recovered products comprising one or more of nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), and cobalt (Co). The intermediate liquid stream can be introduced into a lithium precipitation reactor to precipitate at least one compound comprising lithium (Li).

The present invention relates to a process for recovering one or more metal ions selected from the group consisting of Cobalt, Nickel, Manganese and a mixture thereof from metal-containing residues comprising: A) leaching the residue with a leaching solution comprising lactic acid to obtain a filtrate 1 and a solid cake 1; B) separating the filtrate 1; C) precipitating the Cobalt lactate, Nickel lactate or Manganese lactate from the filtrate 1 to obtain a filtrate 2 and a precipitate 1; and D) separating the precipitate 1; or alternatively, A) leaching the residue with the leaching solution to obtain a filtrate 1 and a solid cake 1; E) precipitating the Cobalt lactate, Nickel lactate or Manganese lactate from the filtrate 1 to obtain a filtrate 3 and a solid cake 2; and F) separating the solid cake 2; and G) separating the Cobalt lactate, Nickel lactate or Manganese lactate from the solid cake 2.

In a method for recovering an active metal of a lithium secondary battery, a sulfuric acid solution is added to a lithium metal composite oxide so as to prepare a sulfated active material solution. A transition metal is extracted from the sulfated active material solution. A lithium precursor is recovered by adding a lithium extracting agent to the solution remaining after the transition metal has been extracted from the sulfated active material solution. In the method, the amount of impurities is reduced, and sulfuric acid and the neutralizing agent can be recycled so that a high-yield lithium precursor recovery is enabled.

In a method for recovering an active metal of a lithium secondary battery, a sulfuric acid solution is added to a lithium metal composite oxide so as to prepare a sulfated active material solution. A transition metal is extracted from the sulfated active material solution. A lithium precursor is recovered by adding a lithium extracting agent to the solution remaining after the transition metal has been extracted from the sulfated active material solution. In the method, the amount of impurities is reduced, and sulfuric acid and the neutralizing agent can be recycled so that a high-yield lithium precursor recovery is enabled.

The present invention relates to a method for recycling iron and aluminum in a nickel-cobalt-manganese solution. The method comprises the following steps: leaching a battery powder and removing copper therefrom to obtain a copper-removed solution, and adjusting the pH value in stages to remove iron and aluminum, so as to obtain a goethite slag and an iron-aluminum slag separately; mixing the iron-aluminum slag with an alkali liquor, and heating and stirring same to obtain an aluminum-containing solution and alkaline slag; and heating and stirring the aluminum-containing solution, introducing carbon dioxide thereto and controlling the pH value to obtain aluminum hydroxide and an aluminum-removed solution.

The present disclosure relates to a process for the recovery of transition metals from batteries comprising treating a transition metal material with a leaching agent to yield a leach which contains dissolved copper impurities, and depositing the dissolved copper impurities as elemental copper on a particulate deposition cathode by electrolysis of an electrolyte containing the leach.

The present invention is a process for directly recovering lithium and valuable transition metals such as cobalt, nickel and manganese from waste cathode and anode powder of spent lithium ion batteries into high grade products through a cascade reduction reaction scheme, followed by digestion and precipitation circuit using CO.sub.2 as media, and a series of physical separation procedures.