Separation of Metals from Hydrochloric Acid Leach Liquor of Spent Lithium Ion Batteries by Solvent Extraction

The lithium ion secondary batteries (LIBs) contain valuable metallic components and although spent LIBs are not generally classified as dangerous waste, recovery of these metals is necessary from an economic point of view. In this work, separation of main metals such as copper, aluminum, manganese, cobalt, nickel and lithium contained in spent LIBs has been investigated using a hydrometallurgical treatment based on solvent extraction. The results obtained in this study are summarized as follows: Aluminum could be selectively separated from manganese, cobalt, nickel and lithium with solvent extraction using PC-88A at pH 2.0−2.5 after the selective extraction of copper with Acorga M5640 at pH 1.0−2.0. The extractant combination, D2EHPA+TOA, was efficient and selective for the extraction of manganese at pH 2.5−3.5 while leaving cobalt, nickel and lithium in the raffinate. Cyanex 272 was favorable to the separation of cobalt and nickel at pH 4.5−5.0 and nickel could be selectively separated from lithium using Cyanex 272 at pH 5.5−6.0. A separation process of copper, aluminum, manganese, cobalt, nickel and lithium from the spent LIBs using hydrometallurgical treatment based on solvent extraction was proposed.