With the rapid growth of the global new energy vehicle industry, the volume of retired power batteries is increasing rapidly. How to efficiently recover valuable metals from spent batteries has become an important issue in the lithium battery recycling industry.

Currently, the mainstream power battery types on the market are ternary lithium batteries and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Ternary lithium batteries offer high energy density but have relatively lower safety performance, while LFP batteries provide better stability and lower costs. Regardless of the battery chemistry, spent batteries contain valuable metals such as cobalt, nickel, manganese, lithium, iron, and aluminum, all of which have significant recycling value. Recovering metals from lithium batteries not only improves resource utilization but also reduces heavy metal pollution, making it a core focus of the lithium battery recycling industry.

Challenges in Lithium Battery Recycling: Traditional Methods Struggle to Meet the Demands of Continuous Production

Currently, metal recovery from retired lithium batteries mainly focuses on electrode materials. Traditional recycling methods generally suffer from low recovery rates and limited efficiency, making it difficult to meet modern industrial requirements for large-scale, continuous production.

To address these challenges, Zhengzhou Tiei Extraction Technology Co., Ltd., drawing on years of experience in liquid-liquid extraction equipment and technology, has developed a solvent extraction solution for spent lithium battery recycling. Centered on the CWL-M centrifugal extractor, this solution helps companies achieve efficient recovery of valuable metals and cleaner production.

Solvent Extraction: Recovering Valuable Metals from Lithium Battery Leachate

This solution adopts the solvent extraction method to recover valuable metals from lithium battery leachate. The specific process is as follows:

Spent batteries are crushed and leached, allowing metal elements to dissolve into the leachate. After impurity removal, the pH is adjusted and a suitable extractant is selected. The extractant and leachate are then fed into the CWL-M centrifugal extractor. As the core liquid-liquid extraction equipment, the CWL-M centrifugal extractor uses a centrifugal force field to achieve rapid mixing and efficient separation of the two phases, transferring metal ions from the aqueous phase to the organic phase. The loaded organic phase then undergoes washing, stripping, and regeneration in sequence, recovering the metal elements while recycling the extractant for reuse and completing the entire closed-loop extraction process.

Throughout this process, the CWL-M centrifugal extractor performs the critical functions of mixing and separation, providing a stable, continuous, and industrially scalable equipment foundation for solvent extraction processes in lithium battery recycling.

Process Features of the CWL-M Centrifugal Extractor

Developed based on the new CWL-M series extraction and separation equipment, this process offers the following features:
1.Compact equipment footprint and a wide operating range.
2.A simple process flow and convenient operation.
3.Stable strip liquor quality that meets different production requirements.
4.Low residual solvent content in the treated aqueous phase, reducing the treatment burden on downstream processes.
5.Scalability from laboratory testing to continuous industrial production.

For customers whose processes are still under evaluation, laboratory-scale extraction equipment can be used for preliminary testing to obtain key process parameters before selecting industrial equipment. This approach helps reduce project risks while providing a reliable basis for subsequent CWL-M centrifugal extractor selection and process design.

Conclusion

As the lithium battery recycling industry moves toward large-scale, continuous, and cleaner production, the importance of efficient extraction equipment continues to grow. Zhengzhou Tiei Extraction Technology Co., Ltd. specializes in liquid-liquid extraction equipment and process support, providing solvent extraction solutions for spent lithium battery recycling centered on the CWL-M centrifugal extractor, covering the process from leachate to strip liquor. Please feel free to contact Zhengzhou Tiei Extraction Technology Co., Ltd. for further technical discussion.
Email: sales@tieiextraction.com
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