Recovery of aluminum, iron and lithium from spent lithium iron phosphate batteries

The separation and recovery of valuable metals from spent lithium iron phosphate batteries were investigated. Based on different physical and chemical properties among the current collectors, active materials and binder, high-temperature calcination, alkali dissolution and dilute acid leaching with stirring screening, were used to study the separation of active materials from current collectors. The results show that more than 92% of aluminum can be removed by alkali dissolution, leaching efficiency of more than 95% of iron could be achieved when H2SO4+H2O2solution is used, and more than 80% of lithium in the remaining solution is recovered as lithium carbonate by the addition of saturated sodium carbonate solution at 90 ℃.