Worldwide adoption of lithium-ion batteries is causing environmental concern, given that only around 9% of the spent batteries are recycled to keep them out of landfill and recover valuable materials. Without viable recovery process, the value associated with critical battery materials is lost. The currently available materials recovery technologies are at the early stage of development and the relevant niche industry targeting this global issue is at its infancy, which is the case for world including Australia.
Our group is developing new industry-relevant processes to recover the critical materials (graphite, Li, Co, Ni, Mn etc.) from battery and industry wastes and identify relevant markets for the recovered materials. In addition, novel green solvents have been developed to replace the aggressive and toxic acid/alkaline solvents used in traditional hydrometallurgy. Thus, we aim to develop a closed-loop-process of recycling of spent batteries for better environmental and economic sustainability. Further, developing the technology, capability and capacity to process valuable battery-waste on-shore is consistent with the evolving circular economy vision and policy in Australia.
- New processes for materials recovery from spent batteries with high leaching efficiency
- Novel deep eutectic solvents for metal recovery
- Upcycling of anode/cathode materials
- Identifying new markets for recovered materials
