Abstract
The manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries (LIB) requires critical materials such as cobalt (Co) and lithium (Li) that are essential for clean-energy products including electric vehicles. Because of their rapidly increasing demand and limited supply, the recycle and reuse of these materials from end-of-life LIB have garnered a lot of interest. Electrochemical leaching has emerged as a sustainable method to extract critical materials out of LIB, so life cycle assessment was conducted to compare the environmental impacts with traditional peroxide-based leaching and another emerging technology – SO2-based leaching. The results showed that electrochemical leaching reduces the global warming potential (GWP) by 80%−87% compared to peroxide-based leaching due to a lower acid consumption, avoidance of hydrogen peroxide, and regeneration of reducing agent iron (II) sulfate and compares well with SO2-based leaching in most impact categories. The analysis suggested renewable energy can further reduce the environment footprint of electrochemical leaching.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 106973 |
Journal | Resources, Conservation and Recycling |
Volume | 193 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2023 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Circular economy
- Environmental impact
- Peroxide-based leaching
- SO leaching
- Value recovery
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Waste Management and Disposal
- Economics and Econometrics