A method of recovering a cathode active material precursor according to an embodiment of the present invention includes preparing a cathode active material mixture including a lithium composite oxide, separating lithium from the cathode active material mixture to form a preliminary transition metal precursor, acid-treating the preliminary transition metal precursor to form a complex transition metal salt solution, and adding an acidic extractant to the complex transition metal salt solution and then adding a basic compound to recover a transition metal precursor, and thus the extraction rate of transition metals can be improved.

A treatment process for crystallizing a metal sulfate involving pre-treating a feedstock comprising calcium, magnesium, and/or lithium impurities, the pre-treating involving pre-leaching the feedstock in the presence of a lixiviant, selectively extracting a first portion of any of the impurities from the feedstock, and forming a leached solution comprising an uncrystallized metal sulfate and any remaining impurities; and/or refining the leached solution and removing a second portion of any of the remaining impurities; and crystallizing the uncrystallized metal sulfate from the leached solution to form a crystallized metal sulfate. So processed, the crystallized metal sulfate may be battery-grade or electroplating-grade.

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 anaerobically cracking a power battery, which includes the following steps: disassembling a waste power battery to obtain a battery cell; taking out a diaphragm from the battery cell for later use, and pyrolyzing the battery cell to obtain electrode powder; extracting nickel, cobalt and manganese elements from the electrode powder with an extraction buffer, filtering, taking the filtrate, then adjusting the filtrate with a nickel solution, a cobalt solution and a manganese solution to obtain a solution A, adding the solution A dropwise into ammonium hydroxide under stirring, and then adding an alkali solution under stirring to obtain a solution B; subjecting the solution B to a hydrothermal reaction, filtering, and roasting to obtain a catalyst, such that a chemical formula of the catalyst is Ni.sup.2+.sub.1-x-yCo.sup.2+.sub.xMn.sup.2+.sub.yO, where 0.25≤x<0.45, 0.25≤y<0.45.

The invention relates to hydrometallurgical method for recovering lithium and one or more transition metals from spent lithium ion batteries, comprising: treating an electrode material of the batteries in an alkaline solution to dissolve lithium in said solution; separating from the alkaline solution a solid phase consisting of lithium-depleted electrode material; recovering lithium from said alkaline solution; leaching the lithium-depleted electrode material with an acid leach solution to dissolve one or more transition metals of the electrode material in the leach solution; separating insoluble material, if present, from the leach solution to obtain metal-bearing aqueous solution and isolating one or more transition metal(s) and optionally the remainder of the lithium from said metal-bearing aqueous 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.

A method for recycling lithium batteries containing the steps: (a) digesting comminuted material (10), which contains comminuted components of electrodes of lithium batteries, using concentrated sulphuric acid (12) at a digestion temperature (T.sub.A) of at least 100° C., in particular at least 140° C., so that waste gas (14) and a digestion material (16) are produced, (b) discharging the waste gas (14) and (c) wet chemical extraction of at least one metallic component of the digestion material (16).

The present invention relates to a method of preparing a precursor material of a positive electrode active material from a waste lithium secondary battery, to a method of preparing a lithium secondary battery positive electrode active material including a precursor material prepared by the same precursor preparation method, and to a lithium secondary battery positive electrode active material prepared by the same positive electrode active material preparation method.

Disclosed is a method for anaerobically cracking a power battery, which includes the following steps: disassembling a waste power battery to obtain a battery cell; taking out a diaphragm from the battery cell for later use, and pyrolyzing the battery cell to obtain electrode powder; extracting nickel, cobalt and manganese elements from the electrode powder with an extraction buffer, filtering, taking the filtrate, then adjusting the filtrate with a nickel solution, a cobalt solution and a manganese solution to obtain a solution A, adding the solution A dropwise into ammonium hydroxide under stirring, and then adding an alkali solution under stirring to obtain a solution B; subjecting the solution B to a hydrothermal reaction, filtering, and roasting to obtain a catalyst, such that a chemical formula of the catalyst is Ni.sup.2+.sub.1-x-yCo.sup.2+.sub.xMn.sup.2+.sub.yO, where 0.25≤x<0.45, 0.25≤y<0.45.

A method for recycling anode materials from a comingled recycling stream derived from exhausted Li ion batteries includes receiving a precipitate quantity remaining from a cathode recycling stream. This precipitate is almost exclusively graphite used for the anode material in the recycled batteries. The precipitate results from an acid leach of charge material from the lithium battery recycling stream. A strong acid is added to the precipitate for removal of residual cathode and separator materials and the mixture heated. The strong acid removes residual aluminum oxide from the separator by transformation to aluminum sulfate. Washing the acid treated precipitate removes water soluble contaminants, such as the aluminum sulfate reacted from the aluminum oxide and sulfuric acid, to generate substantially pure graphite. Any residual material remaining from the cathode recycling phase is also removed.