An overview of lithium batteries and their recycling by hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical methods

Document Type : Review Paper

Authors

neda emami ¹

Davod Moradkhani ²

Milad Ghorbanzadeh ³

¹ Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran.

² Department of Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Materials Engineering and Metallurgy, Zanjan University, Zanjan, Iran

³ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

10.22067/jmme.2025.91217.1173

Abstract

Today, due to the increasing advances in industry and technology, the demand for energy consumption by various industries has also increased. One of the most important energy sources is electricity. Batteries or portable power sources are one of the most important energy sources and play a very important role in energy transfer. One of the most important batteries in the industry, from the subgroup of rechargeable (secondary) batteries, is called lithium (lithium-ion) batteries. These types of batteries have wide applications in various fields. In the near future, it is predicted that the use of these technologies for energy storage in vehicles and renewable energy sources will significantly increase the consumption of lithium batteries.With the advancement of scientific level and continuous progress of human society, mobile phones, computers, electric vehicles have become daily necessities, and the problems of energy reduction and environmental pollution are becoming more and more prominent. Considering the shortage of natural resources for the production of lithium and other important elements that make up batteries, the issue of recovering the elements used in batteries and recycling used batteries is very important. Generally, conventional methods for recycling lithium batteries include two types: physical and chemical. In this study, chemical methods including hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processes have been investigated. By studying reliable articles and sources, an attempt has been made to analyze the recycling and recovery processes of lithium batteries in addition to introducing the types of batteries.

Keywords

Recycling

lithium-ion battery

hydrometallurgy

pyrometallurgy

spent lithium-ion battery

Subjects

• Extractive Metallurgy

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