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Research » Circular Economy for Batteries

Titel

EarLi: Extraktion und Aufreinigung von Lithiumhydroxid Monohydrat aus gebrauchten elektromobilen Li-Ion Batterien für die Batteriezellfertigung

Projekt Art

Verbundforschung

Förderer

VDIA/DE-IT

Laufzeit

01.04.2023 – 31.03.2026

Partner

ACCUREC-Recycling GmbH – Deutschland; Evonik Operations GmbH – Deutschland; Öko-Institut e.V. – Deutschland;

Description

The EarLi project adress the sustainable recycling of lithium from used lithium-ion batteries from the battery cell production funding call. Worldwide, neither industrial or semi-industrial processes nor scientific approaches can be validated that can economically recover this critical raw material in high quality. The loss of value added is increasing dynamically with the rapidly growing amount of waste, and the new European battery legislation will make lithium recovery and recyclate use mandatory from 2026. The project partners are developing and installing an innovative process chain on an industrial scale, in which the lithium in end-of-life battery cells is first transformed into water-soluble lithium compounds using energy-neutral thermolysis. This transformation enables the earliest possible extraction of lithium from the black mass by aqueous neutral leaching, thus preventing dissipative dispersion in the subsequent extractive metallurgical treatment steps of the black mass. A new type of electrolytic membrane filtration then separates the lithium hydroxide monohydrate, which is preferred by precursor manufacturers, from the solution in high quality. The EarLi process chain, which has been tried and tested on lab scale, is particularly characterized by the complete elimination of chemicals, low resource requirements due to the water cycle and low energy consumption due to the energy-neutral thermal pretreatment. This high level of development is the prerequisite for sustainably changing the entire value chain in battery recycling. For the first time, a salable lithium product with a low ecological footprint can be recovered in Europe under competitive cost conditions.

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