Lithium Australia advances lithium battery recycling

Perth-based Lithium Australia has produced refined lithium phosphate from spent lithium-ion batteries and is now focusing on the production of lithium-ferro-phosphate cathode powder as part of its continued lithium recycling strategy.

"By successfully recovering battery metals, lithium in particular for spent batteries, we can provide a sustainable solution to a major recycling challenge — that of batteries being consigned to landfill — and pave the way for the re-birthing of cathode materials," the company said.

Nickel and cobalt, major components in electric vehicle and energy storage batteries, have also been recovered through Lithium Australia's recycling process in a form suitable for commercial refining. The NMC811 battery technology — comprising eight parts nickel and one part each manganese and cobalt — is preferred by most of the world's largest lithium-ion battery producers.

Lithium Australia's objective is to produce refined lithium phosphate from spent batteries and use it directly in the production of new cathode material.

The company is utilising a proprietary lithium phosphate precipitation and refining technology developed in collaboration with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. A significant benefit of the technology is that it reduces the number of steps required to manufacture cathode powder.

"At the moment, few recycling operations around the world can recover lithium from batteries. Our process has the potential to not only improve the sustainability of lithium-ion batteries but also ease future constraints that may prove problematic to the industry," managing director Adrian Griffin said.

Another Perth-based company Neometals is in the early stages of developing a battery recycling process to recover various metals from batteries. These metals include lithium, cobalt, manganese, aluminium and nickel.