STIIMA CNR, Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing - National Research Council, Via Alfonso Corti 12, 20133, Milan, Italy.
Cobat, Via Vicenza 29, 00185, Roma, Italy.
J Environ Manage. 2020 Jun 15;264:110500. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110500. Epub 2020 Apr 2.
Nowadays, Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in advanced technological devices and Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, due to their high energy density for weight, reduced memory effect and significant number of supported charging/discharging cycles. As a consequence, the production and the use of Lithium-ion batteries will continuously increase in the near future, focusing the global attention on their End-of-Life management. Unfortunately, wasted Lithium-ion batteries treatments are still under development, far from the optimization of recycling processes and technologies, and currently recycling represents the only alternative for the social, economic and environmental sustainability of this market, able to minimize toxicity of End-of-Life products, to create a monetary gain and to lead to the independence from foreign resources or critical materials. This paper analyses the current alternatives for the recycling of Lithium-ion batteries, specifically focusing on available procedures for batteries securing and discharging, mechanical pre-treatments and materials recovery processes (i.e. pyro- and hydrometallurgical), and it highlights the pros and cons of treatments in terms of energy consumption, recovery efficiency and safety issues. Target metals (e.g. Cobalt, Nickel and Lithium) are listed and prioritized, and the economic advantage deriving by the material recovery is outlined. An in-depth literature review was conducted, analysing the existing industrial processes, to show the on-going technological solutions proposed by research projects and industrial developments, comparing best results and open issues and criticalities.
如今，锂离子电池由于其高能量密度、重量轻、记忆效应小和支持的充电/放电循环次数显著增加，广泛应用于先进的技术设备和电动汽车和混合动力汽车。因此，锂离子电池的生产和使用在不久的将来将继续增加，这引起了全球对其生命周期结束管理的关注。不幸的是，锂离子电池的废弃处理仍在开发中，远未优化回收工艺和技术，目前回收是该市场社会、经济和环境可持续性的唯一选择，能够最大限度地减少生命周期结束产品的毒性，创造货币收益，并实现对外国资源或关键材料的独立。本文分析了锂离子电池回收的当前替代方案，特别关注电池固定和放电、机械预处理和材料回收工艺（即火法和湿法冶金）的现有程序，并突出了处理方法在能耗、回收效率和安全问题方面的优缺点。列出并优先考虑了目标金属（例如钴、镍和锂），并概述了材料回收带来的经济优势。进行了深入的文献综述，分析了现有的工业工艺，以展示研究项目和工业发展提出的正在进行的技术解决方案，比较了最佳结果、遗留问题和关键问题。
