Development of environmentally and economically sustainable delamination process for spent lithium-ion batteries

The lithium-ion battery era is still ongoing; as a result, a large number of lithium-ion batteries are being used, and a similar number of spent lithium-ion batteries get produced. Being a rich source of valuable metals, spent batteries can be recycled if the process is cost-effective and environmentally friendly. In this paper, an attempt is made to reuse N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) solvent for delamination of untreated cathode material in order to establish an economically viable and environmentally sustainable process. The comparison of pure and recycled NMP delamination processes was studied on the basis of delamination efficiency, environmental, and economic indices. The average delamination efficiency of untreated cathode material was found to be in a similar range for pure and recycled NMP. The global warming potential of pure and recycled NMP was found to be 7.19 and 6.64 kg CO2 equivalent, respectively. Cost required for recycled NMP process is reduced by a magnitude of approximately 4.5 times compared to the pure NMP delamination process. Hence, it is concluded that the recycled NMP process is a more environmentally sustainable and cost-effective option than the pure NMP delamination process.