2025-07-17 ウースター工科大学 (WPI)
＜関連情報＞
- https://www.wpi.edu/news/wpi-researchers-develop-cleaner-scalable-process-recycle-lithium-ion-batteries
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2405829725003848
混合使用済みニッケルリーンカソードからニッケルリッチ多結晶カソードへのアップサイクル Upcycling Mixed Spent Ni-Lean Cathodes into Ni-Rich Polycrystalline Cathodes
Jiahui Hou, Zifei Meng, Xiaotu Ma, Zexin Wang, Jaemin Kim, Zhenzhen Yang, Jianguo Wen, Maksim Sultanov, Mert Akin, Madhuri Thakur, Yan Wang
Energy Storage Materials Available online: 11 June 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ensm.2025.104386
Highlights
- High Utilization of Recycled Materials: The recycling process achieves 92.31mol % utilization of recycled materials, significantly reducing dependency on virgin resources and enhancing sustainability in battery production.
- Adaptability to Mixed Feedstocks: This versatile recycling technique effectively processes mixed cathode materials, demonstrating the ability to handle varied compositions of transition metals, which facilitates a closed-loop recycling system.
- Qualified Electrochemical Performance: Recycled 83Ni cathode materials exhibit physical and electrochemical properties similar to virgin materials, achieving initial specific capacities close to 2100 mAh and maintaining 85 % capacity retention after 867 cycles.
- Significant Environmental and Economic Benefits: The techno-economic analysis highlights a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, making the recycling process more environmentally friendly than traditional methods. Additionally, the upcycling hydrometallurgical approach generates the highest profitability, showcasing its economic viability and effectiveness in leveraging mixed feedstocks.
Abstract
Sustainable battery recycling is vital for conserving resources and reducing environmental impacts. Current open- and closed-loop recycling strategies often focus on recovering individual components, making the reuse of mixed cathode materials a complex challenge. Meanwhile, the research on upcycling has been limited to using pristine cathode feedstocks and virgin materials for synthesis. To address this issue, we present an upcycling approach for spent Ni-lean mixed cathode materials that integrate an upcycling hydrometallurgical recycling process with traditional hydrometallurgical methods. This strategy achieves a utilization of 92.31 mol % of recycled materials, enabling the regeneration of Ni-rich cathode materials while significantly reducing the reliance on virgin resources. The regenerated 83Ni cathode materials demonstrate physical properties comparable to those produced from virgin materials. Electrochemical evaluations using single-layer pouch cells show that both recycled and virgin cathodes exhibit initial specific capacity close to 201.1 mAh/g and maintain approximately 88 % capacity retention after 500 cycles. Additionally, 2Ah cells confirmed these findings, delivering 85 % capacity retention after about 900 cycles. Techno-economic analysis demonstrates notable environmental benefits, including reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption, achieving 232.75 MJ/kg of product, which is 8.6 % lower than traditional methods and comparable to direct upcycling. Furthermore, the upcycling hydrometallurgical recycling process generates the highest profit, proving its economic viability. This scalable and versatile process is adaptable to varying transition metal compositions, facilitating a closed-loop recycling system that bridges mixed spent cathodes with next-generation cathode materials, and offers a sustainable solution for managing waste battery materials.
