Electrodialysis as a route for separating metals from NCA-type automotive lithium-ion batteries

The industrial chain for producing lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) requires various metal resources. The production of new batteries represents 50–80 % of the total cost of the production chain. The separation and recovery of these different metals is a challenge due to the separation's efficiency and the product's purity. In metal separation, the electrodialysis technique has the advantage of high ion separation efficiency, especially Li. We show electrodialysis as a separation route for metals present in NCA-type LIB. We used three separation steps, which first involved the separation of Li (purity 98.7 %), followed by the separation of Ni (purity 98.5 %) and as a final step, the separation of Co (purity 94.7 %) and Al (purity 100 %). The route developed showed that for a real leachate liquor, the separation and purification of Li achieved a purity of 92.4 %. The results indicate that electrodialysis separation can be an alternative technology.