Separation and recovery of metal values from leaching liquor of mixed-type of spent lithium-ion batteries

Present study was focused on a hydrometallurgical process for the separation and recovery of copper, manganese, cobalt, nickel and lithium from leaching liquor of spent lithium-ion batteries. First, copper ions were selectively extracted using Mextral®5640H as extraction reagent after the removal of impurity ions. Manganese ions were then selectively separated and precipitated using KMnO4 solution and about 99.2% manganese was removed and precipitated as MnO2 and Mn2O3. Subsequently, nickel loaded Mextral®272P was used as a new extraction reagent to separate and recover cobalt from the leaching liquor. Finally, nickel and lithium ions left in the leachate were successively precipitated using NaOH and Na3PO3 solutions. Nickel and lithium were recovered as Ni(OH)2 and Li3PO4 after filtration and drying. Recovery efficiencies could be attained as follows: 100% for copper; 99.2% for manganese, 97.8% for cobalt, 99.1% for nickel and 95.8% for lithium under their optimized experimental conditions. McCabe-Thiele extraction isotherm study was conducted for the extraction of copper and cobalt to predict the extraction stages required. It is expected that this hydrometallurgical process can be a candidate for the effective separation and comprehensive recovery of all metals from the leaching liquor.