Provided is a method that allows for efficient removal of an impurity metal, and further, the recovery of a valuable metal with high efficiency. The method for recovering a valuable metal (Cu, Ni, and Co) includes the steps of: preparing a charge comprising at least a valuable metal as a raw material; heating and melting the raw material to form an alloy and a slag; and separating the slag to recover the alloy containing the valuable metal, wherein the heating and melting of the raw material comprises charging the raw material into a furnace of an electric furnace equipped with an electrode therein, and further melting the raw material by means of Joule heat generated by applying an electric current to the electrode, or heat generation of an arc itself, and thereby separating the raw material into a molten alloy and a molten slag present over the alloy.

A method for recovering at least cobalt of valuable metals, cobalt and nickel, from an acidic solution obtained by subjecting waste containing positive electrode materials for lithium ion secondary batteries to a wet process, the acidic solution comprising cobalt ions, nickel ions and impurities, the method including: a first extraction step for Co recovery, the first extraction step being for extracting cobalt ions by solvent extraction from the acidic solution and stripping the cobalt ions; and a second extraction step for Co recovery, the second extraction step being for extracting cobalt ions by solvent extraction from a stripped solution obtained in the first extraction step for Co recovery and stripping the cobalt ions, wherein the first extraction step for Co recovery includes: a solvent extraction process for extracting cobalt ions in the acidic solution into a solvent; a scrubbing process for scrubbing the solvent that has extracted the cobalt ions; and a stripping process for stripping the cobalt ions in the solvent after the scrubbing into a solution.

A process for recovering a nickel cobalt manganese hydroxide from recycled lithium-ion battery (LIB) material such as black mass, black powder, filter cake, or the like. The recycled LIB material is mixed with water and either sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid at a pH less than 2. Cobalt, nickel, and manganese oxides from the recycled lithium-ion battery material dissolve into the acidic water with the reductive assistance of gaseous sulfur dioxide. Anode carbon is filtered from the acidic water, leaving the dissolved cobalt, nickel, and manganese oxides in a filtrate. The filtrate is mixed with aqueous sodium hydroxide at a pH greater than 8. Nickel cobalt manganese hydroxide precipitates from the filtrate. The nickel cobalt manganese hydroxide is filtered from the filtrate and dried. The filtrate may be treated ammonium fluoride or ammonium bifluoride to precipitate lithium fluoride from the filtrate. The composition ratio of nickel to cobalt to manganese in the acid filtrate may be adjusted to a desired ratio. The anode carbon is recovered and purified for reuse.

Disclosed is a method for purifying a nickel-cobalt-manganese leaching solution. The method may include: heating a nickel-cobalt-manganese leaching solution, adding a manganese powder thereto, adjusting the pH, reacting same, and filtering same to obtain iron-aluminum slag and a liquid with iron and aluminum removed therefrom; heating the liquid with iron and aluminum removed therefrom, adding a manganese powder thereto, adjusting the pH, reacting same, and filtering same to obtain copper slag and a solution with copper removed therefrom; heating the solution with copper removed therefrom, adding an alkaline solution thereto, adjusting the pH, reacting same, and filtering same to obtain a nickel-cobalt-precipitated solution and nickel-cobalt-manganese hydroxide; and adding water into nickel-cobalt-manganese hydroxide for slurrying, heating same, adding an acidic solution for dissolution, adjusting the pH, reacting same, heating same, adding a manganese powder thereto, adjusting the pH, and filtering same to obtain iron-aluminum slag and a nickel-cobalt-manganese sulfate solution.

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).

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.

Provided is a method for recovering a valuable metal sulfide, the method including: (a) adding limestone to a residual solution including a valuable metal to remove iron and aluminum; (b) adding sulfuric acid and a sulfide to the solution from which the iron and aluminum are removed to recover the valuable metal sulfide; and (c) adding air or sulfuric acid to the solution from which the valuable metal sulfide is recovered to remove sulfur.

A method for recovering NiSO.sub.4.6H.sub.2O crystals from a nickel rich organic phase is provided. The method includes contacting a nickel rich organic phase with an aqueous strip solution of sufficient H.sub.2SO.sub.4 concentration to extract nickel from the organic phase and of sufficient Ni.sup.2+ concentration to precipitate NiSO.sub.4.6H.sub.2O crystals and form a nickel lean organic phase. Also provided are methods for recovering NiSO.sub.4.6H.sub.2O crystals that include preceding processing steps, including low temperature pressure oxidation (LTPOX) autoclaving of a nickel sulphide concentrate to afford a pregnant leach solution (PLS).