Method of disposing of lithium battery

• Main Author: UCHIDA YOSHIMASA,HIRATA YOSHIMI,ARIMURA KAZUTAKA,YAMASAKI HIROSHI
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 30.05.2007
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CHEMISTRY; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION ORPROCESSING OF GOODS; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO WASTEWATERTREATMENT OR WASTE MANAGEMENT; ELECTRICITY; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; METALLURGY; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS; PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY; PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS

A method of recovering valuable materials from lithium batteries wherein a lithium/transition metal composite oxide is used as a positive electrode active material. In this disposal method, a sheeted positive electrode having a positive electrode active material disposed on a positive electrode collector is immersed in an oxalic acid solution. By virtue of this oxalic acid treatment (step 240), any lithium component contained in the positive electrode active material can be leached into the oxalic acid solution. Using oxygen gas produced by a reaction between the positive electrode active material and oxalic acid, attachments, such as the positive electrode active material, can be self-detached from the positive electrode collector. The transition metal component contained in the positive electrode active material is converted by the oxalic acid treatment to insoluble transition metal compounds (oxalate, oxide, etc.). Thus, through simple means such as filtration (step 244), the leached lithium component can be easily separated from the insoluble transition metal component.