The Recovery of Lithium Iron Phosphate from Lithium Ion Battery

Due to the increasing demand of lithium iron phosphate battery, a recycling process is developed for the recovery of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode material from lithium ion battery. The process includes selective leaching and solvent extraction purification. The recommended operation parameters for leaching was: 2 hours leaching time, 20%(v/v) concentration of hydrogen peroxide, 20%(v/v) concentration of sulfuric acid and 3g LFP in 100ml acid. It is showed that the leaching rate of lithium and iron was 96% and 5%, respectively, with leaching selectivity as high as 19.2. The leaching liquid can be further purified by using solvent extraction method to remove iron impurity. The rate of removal for iron was 100%, with only 2% loss of lithium. The recovered material can be synthesized to prepare regenerated lithium phosphate with particle size of 1-3 mm and high purity.