Environmental impact and economic assessment of recycling lithium iron phosphate battery cathodes: Comparison of major processes in China

Recycling end-of-life lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries are critical to mitigating pollution and recouping valuable resources. It remains imperative to determine the most eco-friendly and cost-effective process. This article presents a comprehensive assessment of two domestic hydrometallurgical and three laboratory-level recycling processes for end-of-life LFP battery cathode materials. The environmental impacts across six categories, including climate change, human toxicity and carcinogenicity, abiotic resource depletion, acidification, eutrophication, and photochemical oxidation, are assessed using CML-IA baseline method, and the economic performance is analyzed based on 2022 material and energy prices. Results indicate that: 1) Acid-free extraction exhibits the lowest environmental impacts, while those of acid-leach precipitation and sulfide roasting are relatively high; 2) Laboratory-level processes with lower direct emissions, including wastewater, waste gas, and solid waste, consider that indirect emissions may lead to larger environmental impacts; 3) Economically, acid-leach distillation is the most profitable. Currently, acid-free extraction is generally the most recommended. With the optimization of energy structure in China, the environmental performance of sulfide roasting should be greatly improved.