1. What are the mainstream methods of recycling lithium batteries at this stage?
1. At this stage, the cascade utilization and raw material recovery of waste lithium iron phosphate batteries/ternary lithium batteries. The method of cascade utilization is to recycle materials after cascade utilization; the direct material recovery batch is too small, there is no history to check, and safety monitoring is unqualified, etc. The pursuit of economic benefits is the driving force for corporate and social behavior. According to this principle, the value of the battery can only be maximized when the usable value of the battery is reduced below the maintenance cost and then the raw materials are recycled. However, the reality is that the traceability of early power lithium batteries is poor, and the quality and model are uneven. In the early stages, echelon use of batteries is risky, and the cost of eliminating the risk is high. Therefore, it can be said that in the early stage of power lithium battery recycling, the disposal rate of the battery is mainly based on the recovery of raw materials
2. The current method of extracting valuable metals from positive electrode materials, that is, the recovery of power lithium iron phosphate battery packs, cannot realize the comprehensive recovery and reuse of various materials on the entire battery. Important types of cathode materials include lithium cobalt oxide, lithium manganate, ternary lithium, and lithium iron phosphate batteries. The cost of battery cathode material accounts for more than 13% of the cost of a single battery. Currently, more carbon materials (such as graphite) are used as cathodes, and lithium titanate Li4Ti5O12 and silicon carbon anode SiC are less used. Therefore, the current battery recycling technology is mainly aimed at the recycling of battery cathode materials.
3. Combined with the stable structure of the lithium iron phosphate battery material, it replaces the traditional acid treatment, valuable element recovery and other methods to directly regenerate, and obtain high-performance recycled LFP materials at a lower cost. At the same time, the process also realizes the recovery of electrolyte and other materials, which greatly reduces the environmental pollution during the recycling process of lithium iron phosphate battery packs.
