New Process Developed for Recovery of High Purity Cobalt/Nickel Oxide in High Yield from Commercial LIB Black Mass and Related Cobalt/Nickel Waste Streams

Maximizing the recycling of lithium-ion batteries (LIB) to recover the strategically important cobalt and nickel is a major concern of all commercial users and manufacturers of the LIB.  DLA with this SBIR has taken the initiative to encourage the development of more complete recovery of cobalt and nickel at higher purity and value.  The present value of the nickel and cobalt as it is in the recovered LIB recycle black mass or filter cake is substantially discounted due to the many other elements and impurities present including, carbon, manganese, copper, iron, phosphate, organic binder, and aluminum.  American Hyperform (AH) has successfully developed a low cost process for recovering high purity (95%) combined cobalt/nickel as the  hydroxide/oxide directly from commercial LIB black mass.  AH  (Dr..W. Novis Smith) utilized its 15 year experience in lithium and other commercial battery recycling to achieve this success.  AH will optimize this process for proceeding to the commercial pilot plant level and commercialization in Phase II. This process is compatible with the current LIB recycling facilities which now isolate the recycled  LIB black mass which is discounted compared to the market value of cobalt and nickel. .  It is anticipated that this new high purity cobalt/ nickel hydroxide oxide will have achieve twice the present discounted value of the cobalt/nickel in the black mass. This will ensure maximum retention of these two critical materials for US commercial and defense needs.  The process removes most of the diluting MnO2, and all of the anode carbon separately yielding high purity cobalt/nickel hydroxide/oxide for direct use in the aerospace high alloys industry..  AH has already reached out to the LIB recycling industry to ensure smooth transition from the laboratory to the plant..