| Abstract Scope |
Spent batteries contain valuable elements - lithium, nickel, manganese, and cobalt - for which recycling is desirable to improve battery sustainability. Although recovering lithium from black mass is economical, recycling Ni, Co, and Mn oxides into new cathodes is a tedious process. It involves multiple steps, including separation, purification, reduction to pure elements, and reoxidation, all of which release a high amount of CO2 emissions. We demonstrate using hydrogen reduction of hydrous oxides, the products remaining after leaching out Li from black mass, to recover Ni, Co, and Mn in a single step. After oxide reduction, the resulting Ni-Co-Mn metallic alloys are utilized as “master alloy” feedstock, without separation into individual elements, for the melting and solidification of high-grade alloyed steels with Fe-Ni-Co-Mn composition. We also elucidate the effect of the chemical compositions of hydrous oxides on the reduction kinetics and chemical composition of the resulting master alloy. |