A method for recovering metals, such as noble metals or copper, from secondary materials and other materials having organic constituents, wherein the organic components are extracted from the secondary materials and other material by thermal treatment in a process chamber and the secondary materials and other materials having organic constituents are prepared for the recovery process.

In a method for recovering active metals of a lithium secondary battery according to an embodiment, a cathode active material mixture is collected from the cathode of the lithium secondary battery, the cathode active material mixture is reduced by a reducing reaction to prepare a preliminary precursor mixture, an aqueous lithium precursor solution is formed from the preliminary precursor mixture, and an aluminum-containing material is removed from the aqueous lithium precursor solution with an aluminum removing resin.

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method to extract components from a metal-containing material, forming a first multicomponent system comprising an ionic liquid and a first aqueous component, wherein the first aqueous component and the ionic liquid form an immiscible mixture when the first multicomponent system is at a temperature below a critical temperature, contacting a metal-containing material with the first multicomponent system, adjusting the temperature of the first multicomponent system above the first critical temperature to form a miscible mixture with the ionic liquid and the first aqueous component, reverting the temperature of the first multicomponent system below the critical temperature to form an immiscible mixture with the ionic liquid and the first aqueous component, and isolating the ionic liquid from the first aqueous component and the metal-containing material, wherein the ionic liquid comprises one or more metals from the metal-containing material.

Proposed is a method of preparing high-purity lithium carbonate through reduction calcining of waste cathode materials without using a carbonate such as sodium carbonate. The method reduces the amount of water required for lithium carbonate recovery, thereby reducing energy consumption for evaporation of water. The method includes (a) preparing scrap powder, (b) reducing and calcining the scrap powder using activated carbon, (c) preparing a lithium hydrogen carbonate solution by adding carbon dioxide gas and the reduced and calcined scrap powder to 8° C. to 12° C. soft water, (d) separating the lithium hydrogen carbonate solution into solid and liquid; (e) converting lithium hydrogen carbonate into lithium carbonate by heating, evaporating, and concentrating the lithium hydrogen carbonate solution, and (f) obtaining the lithium carbonate through filtration.

Embodiments described herein relate to methods of recycling battery waste. In some aspects, a method can include applying a first heat treatment at a temperature of between about 100° C. and about 700° C. to the battery waste, the first heat treatment decomposing at least about 80 wt % of the binder, separating the electrode material from the current collector, and applying a second heat treatment at a temperature between about 400° C. and about 1,200° C. to the electrode material to produce a regenerated electrode material, the second heat treatment decomposing at least 90 wt % of binder remaining in the electrode material to produce a regenerated electrode material. In some embodiments, the method can include applying a surface treatment to the electrode material to remove surface coatings and/or surface impurities from the electrode material. In some embodiments, the surface treatment can include applying a solvent to the electrode material.

The present invention lies in the field of pyrometallurgy and discloses a process and a slag suitable for the recovery of Ni and Co from Li-ion batteries or their waste, particularly from Black Mass. The slag composition is defined according to: 25% < MnO < 70%; Al.sub.2O.sub.3 + 0.5 MnO < 45% SiO.sub.2 > 5%; Li.sub.2O > 1%; MnO + Li.sub.2O + Al.sub.2O.sub.3 + CaO + SiO.sub.2 + FeO + MgO + P.sub.2O.sub.5 > 90%; and, wherein (CaO + 2 Li.sub.2O + 0.4 MnO) / SiO.sub.2 ≥ 2.0. This composition is particularly adapted to limit or avoid the wear or corrosion of furnaces lined with magnesia-bearing refractory bricks.

A method and apparatus to reclaim metals from scrap material such as automobile shredder residue (ASR) that, after separating out light density components, separates out friable material such as rock and glass by crushing and screening operations to generate a high metal content product.

A method for processing accumulators, batteries and the like, which contain lithium, lithium ions, sodium, potassium and/or nickel as active components. According to the invention, the following steps are carried out; introducing an accumulator, a battery, cell or the like, that contains lithium, lithium ions, sodium, potassium and/or nickel, into a chamber/reactor (13,23); introducing water (H2O) (B, B2) in to the reactor (13,23); bringing the content of the reactor (13) to a temperature between 120° C. and 370° C. at a pressure between 2 and 250 bar.

An installation for melting metallic scraps, and particularly adapted for melting aluminium scraps, includes a system for cleaning the metallic scraps, and in particular for cleaning the scraps from organic compounds.

A process for crushing an electrochemical generator comprising a negative electrode containing lithium or sodium and a positive electrode, the method comprising a step, in which the electrochemical generator is crushed in an ionic liquid solution comprising an ionic liquid and a so-called oxidizing redox species that can be reduced on the negative electrode so as to discharge the electrochemical generator.