A multifunctional strategy: Lithium recovery and chlorine fixation via co-pyrolysis of spent lithium-ion batteries and chlorinated waste plastics

Abstract

Both lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and chlorinated plastics are playing an extremely important role in our lives and leading to severe environmental issues when they reach end-of-life. In this work, a novel method to synchronously recover lithium from the spent LIBs and fix Cl from chlorinated waste plastics was proposed via co-pyrolysis and water leaching. The Li in the spent NCM LIBs was converted into soluble Li₂CO₃ and LiCl after the pyrolysis reduction, while Co, Ni, and Mn in the NCM were transformed into insoluble oxide or metal. Meanwhile, the Cl in the chlorinated plastics can be fixed and recovered in the form of LiCl, which avoids the emission of the pollutants containing Cl. Under optimal conditions, the recovery efficiency of Li was 88.55 %, and the fixing ration of Cl in the chlorinated plastics reached 91.27 %. The novel method is quite promising owing to the fact that it can also be extended to treat various chlorinated waste plastics.