A Review on the Recovery of Lithium and Iron from Spent Lithium Iron Phosphate Batteries

This review mainly introduces the recycling technology of lithium and iron from spent lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries based on hydrometallurgy. Most of the hydrometallurgical processes consist of pretreatment, leaching, and separation of metal ions from the leaching solution. Although pyrometallurgical processes are reasonably straightforward, the problems related to energy consumption and environmental burden should be overcome. The direct regeneration has attracted much attention due to its advantages of the possibility of repairing cathode materials while maintaining the original material structure. In contrast to leaching process of hydrometallurgy, mechanochemistry employs mechanical measures to break chemical bonds in order to extract lithium and iron from spent batteries.