Progresses in Sustainable Recycling Technology of Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries

The number of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is steadily increasing in order to meet the ever-growing demand for sustainable energy and a high quality of life for humankind. At the same time, the resulting large number of LIB waste certainly poses safety hazards if it is not properly disposed of and will seriously harm the environment due to its inherent toxicity due to the use of toxic substances. Moreover, the consumption of many scarce precious metal resources is behind the mass production of batteries. In the light of severe environmental, resources, safety and recycling problems, recycling spent LIBs have become an essential urgently needed action to achieve sustainable social development. This review therefore critically analyses the value and the need for recycling of spent LIBs from a variety of resources and the environment. A range of existing technologies for recycling and reusing spent LIBs, such as pretreatment, pyrometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, and direct recycled methods, is subsequently summarized exclusively. In addition, the benefits and problems of the methods described above are analyzed in detail. It also introduces recycling progress of other LIB components, such as anodes, separators, and electrolytes, as well as the high-value cathode. Finally, the prospects for recycling LIBs are addressed in four ways (government, users, battery manufacturers, and recyclers). This review should contribute to the development of the recycling of used LIBs, particularly in support of industrialization and recycling processes.

Automated summary

The recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries is crucial due to their environmental hazards and resource consumption. This review critically analyses the value, need, and existing technologies for recycling these batteries. It also discusses the progress in recycling other components and addresses the prospects for recycling these batteries in terms of government, users, battery manufacturers, and recyclers.