Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.8
3.9
Journals
Sustainability
Special Issues
Sustainable Technologies for Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries
sustainability-logo
Submit to Sustainability Review for Sustainability Propose a Special Issue

Journal Menu

► Journal Menu

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser
share announcement

Sustainable Technologies for Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Waste and Recycling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2023) | Viewed by 7251

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alessandra Zanoletti

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Brescia, via Branze 38, 25123 Brescia, Italy
Interests: waste valorization; reuse of raw materials; metals recovery; Li-ion batteries; municipal solid waste stabilization; synthesis and characterization of porous material; air pollution; pollutants adsorption
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Elsayed Mousa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Metallurgy Department, SE-974 37 Swerim AB, Luleå, Sweden
Interests: recycling of LIBs; metals recovery; graphite separation; recycling of wastes and residues; reduction metallurgy; pyrometallurgy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Guozhu Ye

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Metallurgy Department, SE-974 37 Swerim AB, Luleå, Sweden
Interests: recycling of LIBs; electrolyte recovery; metals extraction; wastes recycling and pyrometallurgy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The need for urgent and more intensive actions against climate change is largely recognized around the world. Electrification is the most affordable energy transition and cost-effective way to mitigate climate change by preventing or reducing GHG emissions. To mitigate climate change and create a fossil-fuel-free economy, the global community has agreed that GHG emissions must be significantly reduced. In this context, Li-ion batteries (LIBs) are one of the effective solutions in modern society to reduce GHG emissions from one of the major GHG emitters, that is, the transportation sector. LIBs currently represent a critical pillar to achieve a fossil fuel-free economy. Global LIB manufacturing is growing very quickly to meet the high demand and usage in vital applications such as portable electronics, electric vehicles, and grid storage. Consequently, a great deal of attention is being paid to securing the sustainability of the critical raw materials which are used in LIBs, such as cobalt, natural graphite, phosphorus, and Li, in addition to other valuable metals such as nickel, copper, aluminum, iron and manganese. The high demand for these critical metals and their nature as limited resources represent a real risk for the sustainable manufacturing of LIBs, and represent new challenges for modern society. 

The lifetime of LIBs is quite limited, and consequently, the recovery and recycling of valuable and critical components from spent LIBs becomes essential from economic, geostrategic, environmental, and health aspects. In this context, the recycling of spent LIBs can play a significant role in securing a sustainable supply of critical metals for new LIBs production while simultaneously reducing landfill waste. However, the technologies for the recycling of battery wastes are currently complicated and require high resource consumption in terms of energy and chemicals necessary for metals extraction. Thus, technologies that can stably secure strategic metals must be developed. This Special Issue welcomes original articles and reviews addressing innovative and sustainable technologies for the recycling of exhausted batteries to overcome the problems connected with limited raw materials and increasing demand of these resources.

Dr. Alessandra Zanoletti
Dr. Elsayed Mousa
Dr. Guozhu Ye
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • recycling
  • raw materials
  • metals recovery
  • electrolyte recovery
  • graphite separation
  • lithium-ion batteries
  • resource efficiency
  • clean energy
  • climate change
  • circular economy
  • sustainability

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

21 pages, 4523 KiB  
Article
Characterization and Thermal Treatment of the Black Mass from Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries
by Elsayed Mousa, Xianfeng Hu, Ludvig Ånnhagen, Guozhu Ye, Antonella Cornelio, Ario Fahimi, Elza Bontempi, Patrizia Frontera, Charlotte Badenhorst, Ana Cláudia Santos, Karen Moreira, Alexandra Guedes and Bruno Valentim
Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 15; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010015 - 20 Dec 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4289
Abstract
Recycling lithium-ion batteries is crucial for the environment and the sustainability of primary resources. In this paper, we report on the characterization of two grades of black mass from spent lithium-ion batteries (with typical lithium–nickel–manganese–cobalt oxide cathode compositions) and their behavior during heating [...] Read more.
Recycling lithium-ion batteries is crucial for the environment and the sustainability of primary resources. In this paper, we report on the characterization of two grades of black mass from spent lithium-ion batteries (with typical lithium–nickel–manganese–cobalt oxide cathode compositions) and their behavior during heating trials. This study paves the way for optimizing lithium-ion battery recycling processes by fully characterizing black mass samples before and after heating. A gas release under pyrolytic conditions was detected using a multicomponent mass spectrometer and included dimethyl carbonate, diethyl carbonate, oxygenated hydrocarbons, hydrocarbons, and other miscellaneous gases. This can be attributed to the evaporation of volatile organic compounds, conductive salt, organic polyvinylidene fluoride binder, and an organic separator such as polypropylene. Thermal treatment led to the partial decomposition of the binder into char and newly formed fluorine cuboids. The compaction of the cathode decreased, but the remaining binder limited recycling processes. By heating the black mass samples to 900 °C, the intensity of the X-ray diffraction graphitic carbon peak decreased, and the lithium metal oxides were reduced to their corresponding metals. The graphite in the black mass samples was structurally more disordered than natural graphite but became more ordered when heated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Technologies for Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

15 pages, 4522 KiB  
Article
Recovery of Valuable Metals from Spent LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 Cathode Materials Using Compound Leaching Agents of Sulfuric Acid and Oxalic Acid
by Chunyuan Yang, Jiawei Wang, Pan Yang, Yue He, Song Wang, Pingyuan Zhao and Haifeng Wang
Sustainability 2022, 14(21), 14169; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142114169 - 30 Oct 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1407
Abstract
The recovery of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries is beneficial to protect the environment and avoid resource depletion. Based on the synergistic effect of the reducing ability of oxalic acid and the acidic strength of sulfuric acid, this study was conducted to [...] Read more.
The recovery of valuable metals from spent lithium-ion batteries is beneficial to protect the environment and avoid resource depletion. Based on the synergistic effect of the reducing ability of oxalic acid and the acidic strength of sulfuric acid, this study was conducted to recover valuable metals from spent LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 lithium-ion battery cathode materials with the compound leaching agents of sulfuric acid and oxalic acid. Under the optimized conditions of sulfuric acid concentration at 2.5 mol·L−1, oxalic acid concentration at 20 g·L−1, liquid-to-solid ratio at 10 mL·g−1, reaction temperature at 85 °C, and reaction time at 100 min, the leaching rate of Li, Ni, Co, and Mn measured by ICP-OES was, respectively, 99.26%, 98.41%, 96.95%, and 97.54%. It was further validated that the valuable metals were almost completely leached when combined with the XRD and SEM-EDS analysis of spent cathode materials before and after leaching. The leaching of Li, Ni, Co, and Mn was all in accordance with the Avrami model with their activation energies of 31.96 kJ·mol−1, 41.01 kJ·mol−1, 47.57 kJ·mol−1, and 42.95 kJ·mol−1, indicating that the diffusion was the control of the Li leaching process, and the surface chemical reaction was the control of the other three metals. This work provides a new idea and method for the recycling of spent lithium-ion batteries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Technologies for Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

22 pages, 2008 KiB  
Article
Wave Analysis of Thick Rectangular Graphene Sheets: Thickness and Small-Scale Effects on Natural and Bifurcation Frequencies
by Seyyed Mostafa Mousavi Janbeh Sarayi, Amir Rajabpoor Alisepahi and Arian Bahrami
Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12329; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912329 - 28 Sep 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1143
Abstract
Free vibration and wave analysis of thick rectangular graphene are studied by employing the wave propagation method. To consider small-scale effects and thickness of a plate in nanoscales, equations of motions are represented by the Eringen nonlocal theory coupled with the Mindlin plate [...] Read more.
Free vibration and wave analysis of thick rectangular graphene are studied by employing the wave propagation method. To consider small-scale effects and thickness of a plate in nanoscales, equations of motions are represented by the Eringen nonlocal theory coupled with the Mindlin plate theory of thick plates. To solve the governing equations of motion with the wave propagation technique, propagation and reflection matrices are derived. These matrices are combined to obtain exact natural frequencies of graphene sheets for all six possible boundary conditions. To check the accuracy and reliability of the method, natural frequencies are compared with the results of the literature, and excellent agreement is observed. Additionally, wave analysis of the graphene sheet is performed and different types of waves in the graphene sheet are captured. Deriving the dispersion relation of the graphene sheet, bifurcation frequencies (cut-off and escape frequencies) are analytically found. Finally, the effects of graphene sheet thickness and nonlocal parameter on the natural frequencies and bifurcation frequencies are investigated. It is observed that natural frequencies are highly dependent on the graphene sheet’s thickness and nonlocal parameter. More importantly, the number and order of bifurcation frequencies depend on these two parameters as well. Our findings are valuable for the sustainable design and fabrication of graphene-based sensors, in which structural health monitoring of embedded graphene sheets is of great importance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Technologies for Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop