Recycling of Lithium Sulfur Batteries

The high-energy battery systems are getting an indispensable significance in accordance to the exponentially growing needs of electronic appliances and electromotive vehicles, having excellent cycle stability. The lithium sulfur battery systems can be the best substitutes for future storage electromotive schemes than their rivals such as lithium-ion battery systems due to the high energy density and excellent life cycle. Hence keeping in view, the growing global demands of economically sustainability and motivations toward product recycling, there is strong need to develop and evaluate the new technologies for digging out the sustainable recycling potential. In this context, new recycling techniques should be focused on the recovery of precious metals along with valuable construction materials for achieving a decent vale of recycling efficiency (RE). The current chapter is planned with an aim to explain the thermal and hydrometallurgical processes in a safer environment for achieving the maximum recycling efficiency of lithium sulfur battery systems. In addition to that, designing of recycling process for lithium sulfur battery systems has also been described and explained. The multiple steps-based process including sorting, discharging, vacuum distillation, mechanical separation, and hydro-treatment was selected for the recovery of elements in accordance to the chemical composition of lithium sulfur battery systems. Both thermal and mechanical steps were employed for the separation of black powder, having all the material resources, recovered from metal castings. Various basic and acidic leaching solutions were trialed for evaluation of their performances, followed by addition of additives for precipitation and adjusting the pH of aqueous solution-based black mass powder. Finally, chemical analysis was conducted for having the evaluation in terms of terms of yield and purity to recover the maximum amount of lithium sulfur battery fractions including lithium, sulfur, carbon, and aluminum.