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Lithium Battery Recycling Management and Policy

Article  in  International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy · January 2016

DOI: 10.1504/IJETP.2017.10001405

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Int. J. Energy Technology and Policy, Vol. X, No. Y, xxxx 1

Lithium battery recycling management and policy

Ataur Rahman*
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering,
International Islamic University Malaysia,
50728 KL, Malaysia
Email: arat@iium.edu.my
Email: ataur7237@gmail.com
*Corresponding author

Rafia Afroz
Department of Economics,
Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Science,
International Islamic University Malaysia,
50728 KL, Malaysia
Email: rafia@iium.edu.my

Abstract: Recycling of used lithium batteries has primarily focused on

extracting active metal cobalt (Co) and lithium (Li). The price of cobalt is
higher than the price of others metals. The price of Co and Li has increased due
to production of electric and hybrid car. The used Li battery is the source
of Li and Co and the optimal way of extract these metals from this waste
are important. Hydrometallurgical method is used to recover Co and Li in
laboratory scale with 48.8 Wh battery. Calcination on Co, Li and Cu extraction
at 700°C was performed to remove organic compounds. Material after
calcination was leached in different concentration of HCl and H2SO4 without
and with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) reducing agent. Experiment was conducted
on recycling of 48.8 Wh battery and found that the recycling cathode 41 wt%
and 8.5 wt% of the cell cathode and anode, which are 48.8% and 23.4% of the
cathode and anode cell material price, respectively.

Keywords: Li-ion battery electro-chemistry; recycling; calcination; disposal;

economics and environmental values.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Rahman, A. and Afroz, R.

(xxxx) ‘Lithium battery recycling management and policy’, Int. J. Energy
Technology and Policy, Vol. X, No. Y, pp.000–000.

Biographical notes: Ataur Rahman is a Professor in the Department of

Mechanical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic
University Malaysia since 2006. His research interests are green transportation
system: EV/HEV, hybrid engine, intelligent power train for hybrid and
electrical vehicle, intelligent steering system and traction control system,
electromagnetic actuated CVT and intelligent air-cushion vehicle for swamp
and peat terrain. He has worked in The University of Tokyo, Japan, as a
Visiting Fellow on the development of integrated instrumentation systems for
autonomous vehicles. He has published more than 130 including journal
articles, books and patents.

Copyright © 20XX Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

2 A. Rahman and R. Afroz

Rafia Afroz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics of the

Faculty of Economics and Management Science, International Islamic
University Malaysia since 2008. She was also appointed as a Senior Lecturer at
University Malaysia Sarawak in 2007. She has received her JSPS Post-Doctoral
Fellowship in the University of Tokyo, Japan in 2005. She has published more
than 30 articles in journals and proceedings. Recently, she has published one
book entitled The Peat Swamp: Productivity, Traficability and Mechanization
by Nova Science Publisher. Her area of research interest is environmental
valuation, waste management, and climate change.

1 Introduction

The lithium battery in the current battery technologies has been considered the best
technology for sustainable transport due to its high energy and power per unit battery,
which allowing it to be the lighter and smaller than other rechargeable batteries. Due to
the huge demand of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery by today and near future for the
transportation and industrial application, the recycling of lithium battery is important as it
can recover valuable metals like Co and Li. The recycling of lithium battery is also
significant from the environmental and health point of view as this battery contains
reactive materials, organic and inorganic compound that can pollute the environment. It
can be said that the recycling of lithium battery is not mainly for the economic
attractiveness, but also to preserve the green environment for humankind.
The electric vehicle is increasing significantly in the market with the view to reduce
the green house gas (GHG) emission and reduce the oil dependency. Lithium ion
batteries are played a major contribution to power the electric vehicle to meet the torque
and speed demand. However, there is a threat regarding the availability of lithium needed
for battery production. This threat has shifted the focus towards ensuring a continuous
supply of materials needed for the green revolution through reuse and recycling of
batteries. The dominant chemistry used in electronics batteries today uses a mixture of
nickel, cobalt, and aluminium (NCA) for the lithium salt in cathode. Battery materials in
the electrodes and the electrolyte are given in Table 1. Lithium converts chemical energy
into electrical energy very efficiently. Rechargeable Li-ion batteries have the highest
potential for future energy storage systems. Lithium is therefore in high demand,
especially to power personal electronic goods like mobile phones, energy storage systems
and (hybrid) electric vehicles. Recycled lithium is as much as five times the cost of
lithium produced from the least costly brine-based process (Gaines, 2009; Lain, 2001). It
is not competitive for recycling companies to extract lithium from slag, or competitive for
the OEMs to buy at higher price points from recycling companies. Though lithium is
100% recyclable, currently, recycled lithium reports to the slag and is currently used for
non-automotive purposes, such as construction, or sold in the open-markets. However,
with the increasing number of EVs entering the market in the future and with a
significant supply crunch, recycling is expected to be an important factor for
consideration in effective material supply for battery production. Lithium resources in
world wide: Bolivia 9 million tonnes, Chile 7.5, China 5.4, USA 4, Argentina 2.6,
Australia 1.8, Brazil 1, Congo 1, Serbia 1 and Canada 0.36 (US Geological Survey,
2012).
 Lithium battery recycling management and policy 3

Table 1 Battery materials

System/ LFP LMS

NCA
electrodes Graphite Graphite MS TiO
Cathode LiNi0.8Co0.15Al0.05O2 LiFePO4 LiMn2O4 LiMn2O4
Anode Graphite Graphite Graphite Li4Ti5O12
Notes: NCA: nickel, cobalt and aluminium; LFP: lithium iron phosphate; LMO: lithium
manganese salt.
Table 2 Composition of lithium battery

Components Amount (wt%)

Cathode, anode, and electrode 40 ± 1.5%
Plastic case 22 ± 1
Steel case 11 ± 1.5
Copper foil 9 ± 0.5
Aluminium foil 6.5 ± 0.5
Electrolyte 5 ± 1.5
Solvent 5.5 ± 1
Electrical board and circuit 2.5 ± 0.5
Source: Paulino et al. (2008)
Metal compositions of Li-ion battery are mainly Al, Cu, Co, Fe, and Li shown in Table 2.
These metals are found at the cathode and anode of the battery. The anode typically
consists of Cu foil covered by a fine layer of carbon while the cathode contains Al, Co
and Li metals. It is particularly interesting to focus research on the recycling of
cathode as the active material in such components represents 41% by weight of
the cell components or 48.8% of the cell price. The price of Al, Cu, Ni, Co and
Li per kilogram is USD1.58, USD5.3, USD10.57, USD27.5 and USD9.5 respectively
(http://www.metalprices.com/dailyexchangedata/Exchange/LME/ALL, 2015).
The research works have been studied to identify the economic and easy
recycling process (Li et al., 2010a; Zhu et al., 2012; Dorella and Mansur, 2007). They
reported that several methods could be preferred to recycle spent Li-ion battery for metal
recovery; predominantly is hydrometallurgical-based and pyro-metallurgical-based
process. As the pyro-metallurgical processes are expensive and consume too much
energy, most of the previous literatures prefer the hydrometallurgical methods for metal
recovery. In this study, the recovery of Al, Co, Fe, and Li metals from the cathode of
spent Li-ion battery is focused on using hydrometallurgical methods (Ferreira et at.,
2009; Sun and Qui, 2011; Zhang et al., 2013). The steps are associated with the
hydrometallurgical methods: physical separation of the battery (dismantling), manual
separation of anode and cathode, acid leaching for the cathode, and crystallisation testing
for recovering of Co metal. There are four fundamental parts that made up a Li-ion
battery cell which are cathode, anode, electrolyte and separator. In addition to these
essentials, the Li-ion battery also has a protective metal casing, covering plastic and an
electronic control unit (Li et al., 2010b). The active material used as the anode for lithium
batteries is usually carbon. For example, copper metal as the active material for anode.
Table 2 shows the average composition of lithium battery.
4 A. Rahman and R. Afroz

The cathode conductor plate is made up of aluminium but the active material displays
more variability than the anode. The most common is lithium-containing material,
usually an oxide, but there is diversity in the composition such as LiCoO2, LiMn2O4,
LiNiO2 and mixed oxides like LiMnxNiyCozO2. The latest development in cathode
material is LiFePO4. The binder material commonly used is polyvinylidene fluoride
(PVDF), which is preferred because of its thermo resistant and non-reactive properties
can withstand both heat and electricity. A non-aqueous high dielectric solvent is
necessary since the voltage of a Li-ion cell (~3.6 V) is higher than the standard potential
of electrolysis of water (1.23 V at 25°C). The electrolyte contains a high-grade lithium
salt (LiPF6, LiBF4, etc.) is dissolved in a dipolar aprotic solvent and enhance ionic
conductivity. It acts as a reservoir of lithium. The separator, a micro-porous polymer
membrane allows the lithium ions to pass through the pores, which prevents short-circuits
between the cathode and the anode.

2 Materials and methods

2.1 Recycling and disposal

By modifying the model of authors (Chagnes and Pospiech, 2013) the ‘Hydrometallurgy’
process (Figure 1) has been developed. Hydrometallurgy process is an efficient and
economic process to recover battery binder, casing, electrodes, and control circuit
(Habashi, 1997). Model shows that mechanical pre-treatment and physical separation is
applied to recover the battery materials plastic, metal casing, and battery electrodes (Co,
Li, Cu, Fe) and battery electrolyte (CoSO4). In hydrometallurgical process, lithium
batteries are first dismantled to separate plastic and iron scraps from active electrode
materials by physical separation using crushing, sieving, and magnetic separation.
Leaching of calcinated materials has been conducted with different concentration acid
solution of HCl, H2SO4 with and without H2O2. This study has been conducted in
laboratory scale with a 48.8 Wh portabel LiCoO2 battery pack.

2.1.1 Physical separation

Mechanical treatment, breaking apart plastic and cells, and some physical separations had
performed by means of gravity and magnetism. Crushed plastics from shells can be
separated by flotation. Using magnetism effect can separate steel parts of the containers.
For larger batteries with many cells manual dismantling can be a more convenient and
profitable way to remove plastics and electronics.

2.1.2 Leaching process

Leaching is a liquid-solid operation. Two phases are intimately contacted; the anode of
battery has diffused from the electrolyte to the liquid phase, which causes a separation of
the components originally in the solid. The rate of mass transfer of cathode can be
estimated,
m c (li ) = km A ( Scm ( s ) − ca ) (1)
 Lithium battery recycling management and policy 5

where m cm ( s ) is mass rate of cathode materials dissolved into the solution/s, A is the
surface area of chop particles of cathode in m2. km is the mass transfer coefficient of
cathode into the acid solution in m/s, Scm(s) is the saturation solubility of the cathode
materials (Li, Co, Ni, Cu) in the aqueous solution (HCL, H2SO4, and H2SO4 with H2O2)
in kg mol/m3, and ca is the concentration of the aqueous soluble compounds of cathode
materials at time t sec in kg mol/m3. The rate of accumulation of Li in the solution is
equal to the dissolving beaker:
ca ( f ) tf

∫ ∫
dca k
= m A dt (2)
Sli ( s ) − ca V
ca ( i ) ti

Figure 1 Hydrometallurgical model for recycling lithium battery (see online version for colours)


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6 A. Rahman and R. Afroz

If the dissolving time (t) of the cathode material into the solution between time, t = ti to tf
and concentration, ca = ca(i) to ca(f). By integrating the equation (2) the saturation
solubility of Li can be modelled as,
km AΔt
Scm ( s ) = ( ca ( f ) − ca (i ) ) + e V (3)

with Δt = (tf – ti), where Scm(s) is the rate of cathode material accumulation in the solution
kg mol/m3.

3 Result and discussion

3.1 Leaching process

The 3M of HCl solution has been prepared by mixing 75 ml of HCL with 300 ml of
distilled water based on the reported work (Ferreira et al., 2009). The cathode of the
battery was cut into small pieces each of 2 g and put into acid solution and stirred by
magnetic stirrer for 1 hr. The temperature of the solution was varied to identify the
changes in leaching rate. The test has been performed by varying the temperature in the
range of 60°C–80°C for different acid solution. The effect of H2O2 on the percentage of
metal obtained from the leaching process was studied. The effect has determined based
on observation and percentage of leaching rate. From observation, the presence of H2O2
as the reducing agent of H2SO4 solution separates lithium metal from other metal.
Without the presence of reducing agent in the acid solution, the leaching of cathode tends
to be a bit slower. The leaching rate of Co metal has studied with different concentration
and temperature as presented in Table 3.
Table 3 Co metal separation by leaching process for different temperature

Weight of Co metal (g) Leaching

Acid solution Temperature (°C)
Initial Final Lose rate
4M (HCL) 60 2.00 1.10 0.90 55.0
70 2.00 1.43 0.57 71.5
80 2.00 1.58 0.42 79.0
4M (H2SO4) 60 2.00 0.98 1.02 49.0
70 2.00 1.4 0.60 70.0
80 2.00 1.45 0.55 64.0
4M (H2SO4 + 2% Vol H2O2) 60 2.00 0.74 1.26 37.0
70 2.00 0.88 1.12 44.0
80 2.00 0.83 1.17 41.5

The result shows that the leaching rate of HCl and H2SO4 are lower than the leaching rate
of H2SO4 with H2O2. The separation of Co metal by leaching with 4M of HCL, H2SO4
and H2SO4 with H2O2 has been studied with different temperature. The leaching rate of
Co metal has increased from 55% to 79% for HCL, 49% to 64% for H2SO4 with
changing temperature from 60°C to 70°C and 70°C to 80°C, respectively. While, the
leaching rate of Co metal extraction by using H2SO4 with H2O2 decreased from 81% to
 Lithium battery recycling management and policy 7

74.5% for changing temperature from 60°C to 80°C. This could be the decomposition of
H2O2 resulting in the evolution of oxygen onto the Co (Adebayo et al., 2003).
Furthermore, the weight of Co for the HCL and H2SO4 is more than the H2SO4 with
H2O2. This is due to the formation of Caro acid (H2SO5) from the chemical reaction as
H2SO4 + H2O2 = H2SO5 + H2O. The H2SO5 has removed the residue from the surface of
Co. In addition, Caro’s acid has an acidic property and a higher oxidising potential on the
sulphide than hydrogen peroxide which has high potentiality to remove impurities and
residue from the surface of Co. This conclusion can be supported by the reported results
(Olubambi et al., 2006). The leaching rate of the extracted material in this study is
calculated as, XLrR = [(wf * 100%) / wI], where XLR is the leaching rate in percentage, wf
final weight of extracted material in gram, and wI is the initial weight of the sample in
gram.
Table 4 shows the composition of the powder of Li-ion battery, which has been made
by crushing the materials that obtained from the physical separation. The composition of
Cobalt (Co) 27.6% is much more greater than the other materials. Based on the
composition and price of Co, the used battery recycling can be justified. Table 5 shows
the metal obtained from recycling of 48.8 Wh battery of weight 302.7g. Co obtained
approximately 502 g of 1,000 Wh of battery, which price is USD14. From recycling
33 kWh battery, standard power pack for an electric car, the recycled values of Co is
USD455.56.
Table 4 Powder of Li-ion battery

Element Composition (wt%)

Co 27.6
Li 3.19
Al 0.92
Ni 0.2
Cu 1.5
Fe 1.35

Table 5 Battery’s metal obtained after recycling

No. Metal obtained (anode/cathode) Weight (g)

1 Lithium 8.578
2 Cobalt 24.51
3 Aluminium 0.45
4 Copper 2.96

4 Economic benefit of recycling

Recycling of automotive batteries has economic benefit. Recycling means to save natural
resource and energy, generators income, and reduce imports. In addition, the biological
activities of Co is largely confined to its role in the vitamin B12 series of coenzymes and
the Cu presents in a variety of proteins and enzymes, including cytochome oxides, an
enzyme in respiratory chains (Raymond, 2005). Stewardship Ontario program pays
8 A. Rahman and R. Afroz

$1.24 per kg of batteries for recycling, compensating recyclers $1,240. Estimated cost to
recycle batteries is about $2,000 per ton, while the cost for the hydrometallurgical
process is about $1,500 per ton (Ferella et al., 2008).
Figure 2 shows the breakdown of unit costs for baseline battery with total price to
OEM of $2528. The total battery cost to the OEM, including pack integration
components but excluding thermal management external to the pack, is $2,923. Figure 3
shows that the metal production for battery is three times more than the battery
production while it is 300 times more than the recycling process. By recycling, the
cathode and anode are obtained by 41% and 8.5% by weight of the cell components
respectively, which is USD 20.03/kWh of the battery.

Figure 2 Overall cost breakdown of battery production (see online version for colours)

Figure 3 Reproduce energy for battery production (see online version for colours)

Source: Habashi (1997)

 Lithium battery recycling management and policy 9

Table 6 shows that the value of recycled metal is USD20.03/kWh which will reduce the
material cost because the equivalent new metal is not needed to be extracted from the
mine. Electrodes cost is USD140 per kWh battery. In is concluded that the recycled metal
can save 13% of total cost of electrode per kWh battery. Table 7 shows the capacity of
battery 8.7 kWh for short travelling range of electric vehicle about 50 km, which has
been developed and tested (Rahman et al., 2015). The total cost of the battery was
USD 2,528. The battery life span was considered as five years based on the OEM. The
recycled materials value for 8.7 kWh batteries is 14% of material cost and 7% of the
battery OEM baseline price. The battery electrodes values are estimated as 0.49 × USD
2,528 or USD 1,238 and the recycled material values as USD 20.03 × 8.7 or USD 174.26.
Table 6 Cost saved from recycling Li-ion battery

Market price Metal recover

No. Metals
(g/kWh) (USD/kWh)
1 Lithium, Li 184.71 1.57
2 Cobalt, Co 554.1 17.97
3 Aluminium, Al 9.69 0.02
4 Copper, Cu 85.27 0.4727
Note: Recycled metal values: USD20.03/kWh.
Table 7 Battery pack for EV and its baseline cost

Battery parameter Baseline

Electric vehicle range, km 50
Number of battery pack 1
Number of cells per pack 52
Battery system total energy, kWh 8.7
Cell capacity, Ah 43
Module (2S2P) capacity, Ah 86
Battery system capacity, Ah 86
Battery Nominal voltage, V 96
Note: Cost for baseline battery with total price to OEM: USD2528.
Source: Rahman et al. (2014)
It is also estimated that if the battery capacity of 34 kWh for an EV of range 117 KM
(AEO recommended), the recycled material values of the battery materials (cathodes and
anodes) would be USD681. If the 100,000 EVs each of battery capacity 34 kWh will be
under recycled (i.e., 3,400,000 kWh battery), the material would save 833.77 g/kWh
battery and it values would be USD68,102 which is very much profitable for a small
scale company. The recycled values of the material of batteries 41 wt% and 48.8% price
of the cathode and 8.5 wt% and 23.4% price of the anode. Therefore, by recycling the
cathode electrode of the battery, which mainly consists of cobalt, nickel and lithium, will
save up to 48.8% cost to manufacture the new battery. This indicates that the lithium ion
battery recycled values are higher and would encourage people to set recycling plant to
recycle large-scale batteries. This not only contributes on the economically but also
environmentally.
10 A. Rahman and R. Afroz

5 Environmental benefit

The interaction between the motor vehicle and environment has become an increasingly
important consideration. The emission of internal combustion engine car, carbon
monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxide (NO), hydrocarbon (HC) and
particulate matter (PM) creates the problem on respiratory system, lungs cancer,
greenhouse effects, prevents red blood corpuscles (erythrocytes) from transporting
oxygen, irritate the sensory organs, and brain damages (Pulkrabek, 2004).
The battery powered EV is increasing significantly to improve the environment for
living planets. Furthermore, batteries in the modern day world have become universal.
They make available energy for a wide range of products that are used across all sections
of economic activity such as households to large industrial enterprises. They also provide
a backup power for activities that involve an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The
battery is categorised as a hazardous waste at the end of its life damage human health or
environment (UNEP, 2003). Furthermore, mining and processing ores (e.g., SOx
emissions from smelting of sulphide ores, such as those that yield copper, nickel, and
cobalt) creates significant negative environmental impacts. These are avoided if the
materials can be recycled (Dunn et al., 2012). If we can recover usable materials used
batteries, we can avoid the excessive battery materials production cost which could be
200% more than the battery production as shown in Figure 3. It could be mentioned that
the higher input on the material production causes the more CO2 emission than the
battery production as the motorised system uses for the material production which is
powered by the IC engine or electrical AC motor or permanent magnetic motor.

6 Policy on lithium battery recycling

The increase in waste generation in Malaysia has forced the country for developing
environmental and waste management policies for a period of time such as
Environmental Quality Act (EQA) in 1974, the Action Plan for a Beautiful and Clean
Malaysia (ABC) in 1988, the National Policy on the Environment (NPE) in 2002, the
Environmental Quality (Scheduled Wastes) Regulations in 2005, the National Strategic
Plan (NSP) for Solid Waste Management (SWM) in 2005 (MHLG, 1998), the Master
Plan on National Waste Minimisation (MWM) in 2006 (MHLG, 2006a), the National
Solid Waste Management Policy (NSWMP) in 2006 (MHLG, 2006b), the Solid Waste
and Public Cleansing Management Act (SWMA) in 2007 (GOM, 2007), and finally
extension to the Tenth Malaysian Plan in 2010 (EPU, 2005).
The EQA 1974 was formulated for preventing, abating, and controlling pollution, and
subsequently improving environmental quality. The focuses of EQA to manage
scheduled waste management for conveniences, which produces, stores, transports, treats
or disposes scheduled wastes. The MHLG (1998) started an Action Plan on Municipal
Solid Waste Management, also recognised as an ABC Malaysia. The focus of ABC was
to create a fruitful, environmentally sound, and socially standard municipal solid waste
system in Malaysia by the year 2010. Malaysian Government formulated the NSP for
SWM in 2002 and later they adopted in 2005. Their objective was to provide the basis for
the SWM policies and measures in Malaysia until 2020. It was suggested by the NSP that
six strategies should be followed to guide solid waste legislative, institutional and
infrastructural planning and management in Malaysia. The regulatory and technical
 Lithium battery recycling management and policy 11

services framework for improving SWM was developed by The Action Plan developed.
The Action Plan also supports infrastructural framework for a sustainable SWM system.
The Malaysian Government also established the NSWMP to provide an integrated
SWM system. At the same time, the NPE was formulated to continue economic, social,
and cultural progress of Malaysia and enhance the quality of life of its people, through
environmentally sound and sustainable development. The country tried to manage the
solid waste though implementing the SWMA. The SWMA defines recycling as a
procedure to collect and separate solid wastes for producing products.
Currently, there are no regulations concerning recycling of large-volume
Lithium-based batteries in Malaysia. This condition is favourable for recyclers, who
would face no restrictions in process design. However, there is possibility that they would
face the significant restrictive regulations. Hence, in order to avoid the complications,
procedures must be designed which is compliant with anticipated regulations. In addition,
battery technology is still evolving and is used in small scale in this country. For this
reason, recycling procedures for designing or chemical procedure could become
irrelevant quickly.
Automotive Li-ion batteries have only been in commercial use in small scale, and it
will take some time until they are used in large volumes. In this situation, it is expected
that with their long product life (ideally five years), not nearly enough batteries have
reached at the end of their lives to support large-scale recycling plants. Nevertheless,
lithium batteries from consumer electronics and processing scrap are obtainable. They
also can supply feedstock for the fledgling recycling industry for automotive Li-ion
batteries. In this context, we would like to suggest some policy which will be useful in
future recycling the Li-ion battery. They are as follows:
• Separation technology for recovered cells’ valuable active materials that enables by
processing different chemistries, recycling processes for each cell chemistry, or
technology that produces valuable products from a mixed stream.
• All batteries would be designed with recycling in mind, avoiding irreversible joining
and troublesome materials. An alternative to separate processing would also require
process development to enable production of a valuable product from a mixed stream
(or product separation into valuable streams).
• Strict industry standards would ensure that recycled products meet the same high
quality standards as virgin materials and thereby are accepted for reuse.
• Batteries contain metallic lithium that reacts violently when in contact with moisture.
If thrown in a landfill in a charged state, heavy equipment operating on top could
crush the cases and the exposed lithium could ignite a fire. Regulation could be
imposed on lithium-based batteries recycle other than disposed in landfills.
• Disposal landfill should be away from the river side and see side or lake side. So,
that the water of the sources has no chance to be polluted.
In addition, there some policy should be instituted for ease the recycling cost and
encourage the people to recycle the used batteries:
12 A. Rahman and R. Afroz

• Moving and handling the used lithium batteries is expected to double the overall
recycling cost. To simplify the transportation,
a The EV/HEV batteries exchanging centre and recycling plant should be in the
same strategic geographic locations, the transportation and recycling costs will
be largely reduced. While the emission would be reduced about 60%.
b The EV/HEV used batteries from collection centres are transported to sorting
centres and transported again to recycling centres according to their kinds; each
recycling centre must re-sorting the material before treatment and in all cases, a
part return to the sorting centres, etc., the transportation and the recycling costs
will be largely reduced.
• With increasing of EV/HEV in transportation sector, the used lithium-based batteries
will fill up our landfills if we do not recycle. It is estimated that if our cars were all
of the EV/HEV billion tons of used Li-ion batteries will fill up our landfills in every
year. It would be dangerous for the environment and human health. The regulation
needs to imposed on the used lithium-based batteries recycled other than disposed in
landfills. To enhance the recycling of used lithium-based batteries the following
could be adopted:
a Metallurgical process can be achieved to extract active materials from used
battery about 35% and the waste about 65%. By improving the metallurgical
process the percentage of recycle active materials can be improved.
b The new technology such as electro-winning process invention could extract the
precious metal like Co from the leached acidic solution with impurities about
95%.
c The lithium-based used batteries of laptop and others electronics disposed in
landfills might damages of brain and kidney for the exposure of the toxic metals.
By offering the scrap collector/recycler an attractive incentive per kilogram of
used batteries, the collection of used batteries could be increased for recycling
and significantly reduce the risk of human health problem.

5 Conclusions

1 Possibilities of cobalt and lithium recovery from spent lithium batteries were
discussed in this work. The hydrometallurgical method is widely studied for the
extraction of materials from the waste.
2 Calcination was chosen for thermal pre-treatment of Co, Li and Cu black masses
from the used portable lithium batteries. Calcination was conducted at 700°C for
60 minutes to remove the organic impurities before leaching process.
3 Leaching was conducted with different concentration of acid such HCl and H2SO4
with and without H2O2 reducing agent at varying temperature 60°C –80°C.
4 Experiment was conducted on recycling of 0.049 kWh Li-ion battery and result
shows that the recycling cathode 41 wt% of cell cathode and anode 8.5 wt% of the
cell anode materials, which are 48.8% and 23.4% of the cathode and anode cell
material price, respectively.
 Lithium battery recycling management and policy 13

5 The Co from the composition of CoSO4 can be extracted about 90%–99% by using
any of the process: participation, electro-winning and solvent extraction.
6 It could be recommended based on the emission due to transportation of reused
batteries to the recycling plant and extracted materials from the recycle plant to the
battery manufacturing plant, the recycle plant should be closer to the manufacturing
plant.
7 Policy of the recycled lithium-based used batteries has been proposed based on the
impact of used batteries disposed in landfills and reduction of recycling cost and
emission.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Ministry of Education, Malaysia and Research
Management Centre, International Islamic University Malaysia for financing this project
by MyRA grant.

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