Microwave-Assisted Reduction Behaviors of Spent Cathode Material with Biochar

The production of spent lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is expected to increase rapidly with the rapid development of new energy vehicles. Without proper disposal, the spent LIBs will cause a wasteWastes of resources and a threat to the environmentEnvironment. The route of carbothermal reductionCarbothermal reduction followed by magnetic separationMagnetic separation has been proven to be an efficient process to recover valuable metals from spent LIBs. This paper investigated the reductive roastingRoasting behaviors of the spent cathode materialSpent cathode material under microwave-assisted reductionMicrowave-assisted reduction using biocharBiochar as the reductant. Experimental results show that the chemical phases of spent cathode materialSpent cathode material were converted into Ni-Co alloy, MnO and Li2CO3, wherein Li2CO3 can be extracted by water leachingWater leaching, and the Ni-Co alloy can be recovered by magnetic separationMagnetic separation.