Spent Lithium Battery Recycling: Traditional and Innovative Approaches

Lithium battery recycling has become a crucial research area due to its important role in environmental sustainability. Lithium batteries are the most widely used energy storage devices, due to their high-performance properties. They have a wide range of applications, and their use is expected to increase, suggesting an escalation in their production and in the generation of spent batteries. Environmental risks and the limited availability of raw materials are the main concerns leading to the need for the proper treatment of end-of-life batteries. This review summarizes the main approaches studied and applied for battery recycling. It provides a comprehensive description of traditional approaches such as pyrometallurgy and hydrometallurgy, which are effective in metal recovery but with limitations related to environmental pollution. Innovative processes, such as bioleaching, mechanochemistry and direct recycling, are also explored, and their benefits and drawbacks are discussed.