Patent ID: 9312581
Filing Date: 2016-04-12
CPC Classification: C22B,H01M,Y02E,Y02P,Y02T,Y02W

Claim Text:
1. A method for recycling lithium battery electrodes and/or lithium batteries, the method comprising: a) grinding a lithium battery electrode, a lithium battery, or both, to yield organic components; b) dissolving the organic components in an organic solvent, thereby obtaining a first suspension comprising undissolved metals; c) separating the undissolved metals present in the first suspension, to yield a separated suspension; d) filtering the separated suspension with a filter press, thereby obtaining a solid mass retained on a first filter and a first filtrate comprising the organic solvent, e) recovering the solid mass retained on the first filter, and suspending the solid mass in water, thereby obtaining an aqueous suspension comprising sedimented or coagulated materials and carbon-containing material in an aqueous medium; f) recovering the sedimented or coagulated materials, resuspending the sedimented or coagulated materials in water to form a resulting suspension, and adjusting the pH of the resulting suspension to a pH below 5; g) filtering the resulting suspension with a filter press, thereby obtaining a second filtrate and a solid fraction retained on a second filter; and h) separating iron by precipitating at least one iron phosphate, and separating lithium by precipitating a lithium salt.