An exponential market growth of Li-ion batteries (LIBs) has been observed in the past 20 years; approximately 670,000 tons of LIBs have been sold in 2017 alone. This trend will continue owing to the growing interest of consumers for electric vehicles, recent engagement of car manufacturers to produce them, recent developments in energy storage facilities, and commitment of governments for the electrification of transportation. Although some limited recycling processes were developed earlier after the commercialization of LIBs, these are inadequate in the context of sustainable development. Therefore, significant efforts have been made to replace the commonly employed pyrometallurgical recycling method with a less detrimental approach, such as hydrometallurgical, in particular sulfate-based leaching, or direct recycling. Sulfate-based leaching is the only large-scale hydrometallurgical method currently used for recycling LIBs and serves as baseline for several pilot or demonstration projects currently under development. Conversely, most project and processes focus only on the recovery of Ni, Co, Mn, and less Li, and are wasting the iron phosphate originating from lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Although this battery type does not dominate the LIB market, its presence in the waste stream of LIBs causes some technical concerns that affect the profitability of current recycling processes. This review explores the current processes and alternative solutions to pyrometallurgy, including novel selective leaching processes or direct recycling approaches.

Today world population increase and related economy expands are accompanied with important growth of substantial need for natural resources. Consequently, in order to sustain same level of economic activities a great amount of energy and resource are consumed [1].

The first instance of an acidic aqueous biphasic system (AcABS) based on tributyltetradecyl phosphonium chloride ([P44414 ][Cl]) and an acid is here reported. This AcABS exhibits pronounced thermomorphic behavior and is shown to be applicable to the extraction of metal ions from concentrated acidic solutions. Metal ions such as cobalt(II), iron(III), platinum(IV) and nickel(II) are found to partition preferentially to one of the phases of the acidic aqueous biphasic system and it is here shown that it successfully allows the difficult separation of CoII from NiII , here studied at 24 and 50 °C.

We report the possibility of recycling carbonaceous materials (GC) from used/spent Li-ion batteries (LIBs) and re-using the material again as a negative electrode. In addition to LIB, the possibility of using them in Li-ion capacitor (LIC) configuration with activated carbon is also explored. First, the carbonaceous materials are recovered from the mechanical treatment and subsequent leaching process. After the successful recovery, the Li-insertion properties are studied in half-cell assembly and it exhibits very decent electrochemical activity. While re-using GC as an anode, large irreversibility is noted compared to fresh usage. Therefore, the elimination of such irreversible capacity is desperately required prior to the fabrication of either LIBs or LICs. Full-cell LIB is assembled with olivine phase LiFePO4 cathode and the configuration delivers a maximum energy density of similar to 313 Wh kg(-1). Similarly, the GC is used as an anode in LIC assembly with commercial activated carbon. The LIC displays an energy density of similar to 112 Wh kg(-1) with decent cycling profiles.

A process for the separation of cerium from a lanthanide powder using ionic liquids is reported. In a first step, starting from a mixture of cerium(III) sulphate, neodymium(III) sulphate, lanthanum(III) chloride and praseodymium(III) chloride, cerium(III) was successfully oxidised into cerium(IV) under alkaline conditions, whereas all other lanthanide ions remained in their third oxidation state. The lanthanide hydroxide salts formed in this step were then dissolved in a nitric acid solution. Efficient and selective extraction of Ce(IV) towards trihexyltetradecylphosphonium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide [P-66614]INTf2] or 1-methyl-1-butylpyrrolidinium bis(trifiuoromethanesulfonyl)imide [C(1)C(4)Pyrr][NTf2] was then achieved. The pyrrolidinium cation was found to be more efficient using [C(1)C(4)Fyrr][NTf2] than [P-66614][Nrf(2)]. Cerium was then recovered by a stripping step using a weakly concentrated nitric acid solution, yielding a complete regeneration of the ionic liquid. Finally, recycling of [C(1)C(4)Pyrr][NTf2] was studied carrying out ten cycles consisting in an extraction step followed by a stripping step using the same ionic liquid phase. Extraction of Ce(IV) was found to remain high, starting from 97% extraction and slightly decreasing down to 88% at the end of the cycling process. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

SOMABAT aims to develop more environmental friendly, safer and better performing high power Li polymer battery by the development of novel breakthrough recyclable solid materials to be used as anode, cathode and solid polymer electrolyte, new alternatives to recycle the different components of the battery and life cycle analysis. This challenge is being achieved by using new low-cost synthesis and processing methods in which it is possible to tailor the different properties of the materials. Development of different novel synthetic and recyclable materials based carbon based hybrid materials, novel LiFePO4 and LiFeMnPO4 based nanocomposite cathode with a conductive polymers or carbons, and highly conductive polymer electrolyte membranes based on fluorinated matrices with nanosized particles and others based on a series of polyphosphates and polyphosphonates polymers respond to the very ambitious challenge of adequate energy density, lifetime and safety. An assessment and test of the potential recyclability and revalorisation of the battery components developed and life-cycle assessment of the cell will allow the development of a more environmental friendly Li-polymer battery in which a 50 % weight of the battery will be recyclable and a reduction of the final cost of the battery up to 150 €/kWh is achievable. The consortium is made up of experts in the field and is complementary in terms of R&D expertise and geographic distribution.

Lithium ion sector is the most dynamic among the battery segment. several omposition of li-ion batteries are now on the market while basic composition is moving from lithium cobalt oxides / carbon portable segment to several kinds of cathodes materials, electrolytes and anodes materials. This means that we are in the need of new flexible processes while maintaining high recycling rate linked mainly to: 1- Process in safe way high capacity batteries 2- Achieve resource conservation in general and lithium in particular 3- Provide process with low environment impact mainly on fluoride/solvent emissions while having improved carbon print avoiding any CO2 production. A new process will be presented . Work are coming our from several R&D programs such as: 1-National French Networks Project ELLISUP and PROCYON 2- 7th FP European Cluster AMELIE, SOMABAT, MARS-EV New process obtained during those projects will be presented. Approach of “electrodes to electrodes” will be considered.

Recycling of waste electrical and electronic equipments (WEEE) has been taken into consideration in the literature due to the large quantity of concerned wastes and their hazardous contents. The situation is so critical that EU published European Directives imposing collection and recycling with a minimum of material recovery [1]. Moreover, WEEEs contain precious metals, making the recycling of these wastes economically interesting, but also some critical metals and their recycling leads to resource conservation. This paper reports on a new approach for recycling waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs). Molten salts and specifically molten KOH-NaOH eutectic is used to dissolve glasses, oxides and to destruct plastics present in wastes without oxidizing the most valuable metals. This method is efficient for recovering a copper-rich metallic fraction, which is, moreover, cleared of plastics and glasses. In addition, analyses of gaseous emission show that this method is environmentally friendly since most of the process gases, such as carbon monoxide and dioxide and halogens, are trapped in the highly basic molten salt. In other respects, under operation without oxygen, a large quantity of hydrogen is produced and might be used as fuel gas or as synthesis gas, leading to a favourable energy balance for this new process.

The anodic behavior of gold has been investigated in presence of chloride and/or water in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium methanesulfonate (BMI CH3SO3) ionic liquid (IL). The cyclic voltammetry (CVs) in presence of chloride ions shows two waves attributed to the oxidation of the gold electrode which occurs under two steps: the first one is attributed to the electrochemical dissolution of gold into to gold(I), while the second one is attributed to an overlap of the chloride oxidation step as well as the oxidation of Au(I) to Au(III). Furthermore the determination of water and chloride content in IL allowed observing that the passive layer induced by water could be removed under chloride. Thanks to those results we were able to clarify the conditions of gold recovering in this kind of electrolyte.

The growth of miniaturization in one hand and energy density need lead to rapid development of new chemistry for batteries as observed during last decade particularly in secondary systems. However dark side of the progress is always in environment impact and scarcity of resources. In the lithium segment a jump from six electrochemical series (all non rechargeable systems) before 1990 to more than 15 systems including new rechargeable systems has been observe during last decade. Lithium battery chemistry was enriched with new electrolytes, conductive salts and new oxide composition. In the same time, lithium ion battery safety was strongly improved during last period. The progress of these technologies was strongly boosted by the substantial growth of the mobile telephone market in the mid 1990's (+ 1% a month in 2000, and a 71% penetration rate in Europe in 2005 compared to just a few percent in 1996). This market is constantly in search of higher electrochemical performance (mainly energy density in front of increasing miniaturization. Recycling of end of life product could be managed not only in environment aspect, but also under resource conservation and economic aspect of arising technology (mainly on the effect of re-injection recovered materials) The Li-ion segment is a new branch in the cobalt market and impact of LiCoOx will be fitted with the actual increase of the demand for this battery. For this reason all the processes aim to valorize active and packaging material. RECUPYL process project was conducted in this direction to offer a new solution for recycling those lithium systems. The process has been developed at pilot industrial scales using synergy between new equipment (for mechanical pre-treatment step) and existing line at RECUPYL facility (for chemical treatment) and should lead to high valorization rate with a minimum hazardous co-products. The process was also developed in order to be able to recover news cathode materials introduced in electrode like LiFEPO4, LiMxCoyO2 and new anode composition in substitution with former carbon anode.