Provided is a slurry treatment apparatus includes: a treatment tank for performing any treatment of a solid-liquid reaction, a solid-gas reaction, a gas-liquid reaction, and solid-liquid separation on a slurry containing a metal or a metal compound; a first pipe; a second pipe; and a pump, in which one end of the first pipe has a suction opening for sucking the slurry from the treatment tank, the other end of the first pipe is connected to a suction port of the pump, one end of the second pipe is linked to a discharge port of the pump, the other end of the second pipe is connected to a microbubble generator, and the microbubble generator includes a throttle that throttles a flow of the slurry and a gas supply tube for supplying gas to the throttle, and supplies microbubbles to the slurry in the treatment tank.

This disclosure provides a system for coupling supercritical carbon dioxide cycle power generation and lithium extraction from brine. The system comprises an absorption heat pump unit, a supercritical carbon dioxide cycle power generation unit, and a unit for extracting lithium from brine. This system organically couples the exothermic characteristics of the supercritical carbon dioxide cycle system with the endothermic characteristics of the lithium extraction from brine system, and the waste heat is recycled in a cascade as the heat source in the lithium extraction from brine system, thereby effectively reducing the total energy consumption of power generation and lithium extraction and reduce the total equipment investment of the system, and significantly improving the efficiency of adsorption and lithium precipitation in the lithium extraction from brine system.

Methods and systems for the extraction of metals from an aqueous feed solution containing the metal ions. The aqueous feed solution is contacted with one side of a hydrophilic membrane support while an organic liquid is contacted with an opposite side of the hydrophilic membrane support. Metal ions migrate from the aqueous feed solution through the membrane support and into the organic liquid. The metal ions may be re-extracted from the organic liquid using a strip solution. The steps of extraction and reextraction may be carried out in a system including two hollow fiber membrane modules that each include a plurality of hydrophilic polymer hollow fibers.

Provided is a method for recovering lithium, for recovering lithium from a lithium ion secondary battery, the method including: a thermal treatment step of thermally treating a lithium ion secondary battery having a residual voltage higher than or equal to 80% of a rated voltage, to obtain a thermally treated product; a pulverizing step of pulverizing the thermally treated product, to obtain a pulverized product; and a lithium recovering step of recovering lithium from the pulverized product.

Provided is a method for recovering lithium, for recovering lithium from a lithium ion secondary battery, the method including: a thermal treatment step of thermally treating a lithium ion secondary battery having a residual voltage higher than or equal to 80% of a rated voltage, to obtain a thermally treated product; a pulverizing step of pulverizing the thermally treated product, to obtain a pulverized product; and a lithium recovering step of recovering lithium from the pulverized product.

A method for recovering valuable substance, for recovering it from lithium ion secondary battery includes: thermal treatment step of thermally treating lithium ion secondary battery to obtain thermally treated product; pulverizing/classifying step of classifying pulverized product obtained by pulverizing thermally treated product, to obtain coarse and fine-grained products both containing valuable substance; water leaching step of immersing fine-grained product in water, to obtain water-leached slurry; wet magnetic sorting step of subjecting water-leached slurry to wet magnetic sorting, to sort water-leached slurry into magnetically attractable materials and non-magnetically attractable material slurry; and acid leaching step of adding acidic solution to either or both of non-magnetically attractable material slurry recovered by wet magnetic sorting and non-magnetically attractable materials obtained by solid-liquid separation of non-magnetically attractable material slurry to leach non-magnetically attractable materials at pH lower than 4, followed by solid-liquid separation to obtain acid leaching liquid and acid leaching residue.

A system for processing a waste lithium-ion battery includes: a first aqueous solution generator that includes a first elution tank storing water, and that immerses an active material taken out from the waste lithium-ion battery in the water in the first elution tank and subjects the active material to carbon dioxide bubbling in the first elution tank to generate an aqueous solution of pH 5.5 to 8.5, in which lithium contained in the active material is eluted; a first solid-liquid separator that removes a solid component from the aqueous solution generated by the first aqueous solution generator; a first crystallizer that causes lithium carbonate to be deposited from the aqueous solution, from which the solid component has been removed by the first solid-liquid separator; and a second solid-liquid separator that performs solid-liquid separation on slurry containing the lithium carbonate deposited in the first crystallizer to take out the lithium carbonate.

A system for processing a waste lithium-ion battery includes: a first aqueous solution generator that includes a first elution tank storing water, and that immerses an active material taken out from the waste lithium-ion battery in the water in the first elution tank and subjects the active material to carbon dioxide bubbling in the first elution tank to generate an aqueous solution of pH 5.5 to 8.5, in which lithium contained in the active material is eluted; a first solid-liquid separator that removes a solid component from the aqueous solution generated by the first aqueous solution generator; a first crystallizer that causes lithium carbonate to be deposited from the aqueous solution, from which the solid component has been removed by the first solid-liquid separator; and a second solid-liquid separator that performs solid-liquid separation on slurry containing the lithium carbonate deposited in the first crystallizer to take out the lithium carbonate.

Various embodiments provide a leaching solution monitoring module comprising a first leaching solution distribution system interface, a flow meter in fluid communication with the first leaching solution distribution system interface, the flow meter in fluid communication a 3-way pressure regulator, and a second leaching solution distribution system interface in fluid communication with the 3-way pressure regulator.

Apparatus and methods for lithium extraction from aqueous sources are described herein. Divalent ions are removed using staged membrane separation. The aqueous source is subjected to a solvent extraction process that extracts lithium. Aqueous and organic phases of streams produced by the solvent extraction process are separated using electrical and/or gas flotation separation. The solvent is de-complexed to unload lithium. Streams produced by the de-complexing may be subjected to electrical and/or gas flotation separation. Solvent de-complexing can be performed using an electrical separator. Aqueous streams are pH adjusted for return to the environment.