Digital cameras, laptops and mobile phones have
fuelled demand for lithium batteries, but global
reserves are limited.
Source: Tom Brown

The global boom in portable electronic products such as mobile phones and laptop computers has put a premium on rechargeable lithium batteries.

A typical lithium battery lasts for 300–500 full recharges – around one to three years – before failing, after which it is likely to end up in landfill. In addition to lithium contamination, metals such as iron, aluminium, copper and cobalt can leach from spent batteries into the local environment.

Landfill contamination is not the only drawback. The world’s reserves of lithium are rapidly dwindling. This scarcity, combined with rising demand for the batteries – which also power hybrid electric vehicles – has created the prospect of a ‘peak lithium’ crisis occurring in parallel with peak oil.

The main challenge in recycling lithium is separating it from the other substances in the spent batteries.

Australian researchers at the Parker Centre (CSIRO Minerals) in Perth have come up with a novel concept for an improved solvent extraction process to recover and purify cobalt and lithium from batteries.

The process starts with the leach solution from spent batteries and includes a new solvent extraction process, together with conventional solvent extraction, ion exchange, electrowinning and precipitation.

CSIRO researcher, Dr Chu Yong Cheng, says the key to the new extraction process is its selectivity, enabling  ecovery of high-purity metal endproducts. Alternative processes based on precipitation result in contamination of metal end-products by other impurities.

‘Now that we’ve developed the process flowsheet, we are looking for industrial sponsors to develop the technology further,’ adds Dr Cheng.