This study was attempted to study for recovery of Li as Li2CO3 from cathode active material, especially NCA (LiNiCoAlO2), recovered from spent lithium ion batteries. This consists of two major processes, carbonation using CO2 and water leaching. Carbonation using CO2 was performed at 600ºC, 700ºC and 800ºC, and NCA (LiNiCoAlO2) was phase-separated into Li2CO3, NiO and CoO. The water leaching process using the differences in solubility was performed to obtain the optimum conditions by using the washing time and the ratio of the sample to the distilled water as variables. As a result, NCA (LiNiCoAlO2) was phase-separated into Li2CO3 and NiO, CoO at 700ºC, and Li2CO3 in water was recovered through vacuum filtration after 1 hour at a 1:30 weight ratio of the powder and distilled water. Finally, Li2CO3 containing Li of more than 98 wt.% was recovered.
In this study, the synthesis of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) powder was conducted by a carbonation process using carbon dioxide gas (CO2) from waste acidic sludge based on sulfuric acid (H2SO4) containing around 2 wt.% lithium content. Lithium sulfate (Li2SO4) powder as a raw material was reacted with CO2 gas using a thermogravimetric apparatus to measure carbonation conditions such as temperature, time and CO2 content. It was noted that carbonation occurred at a temperature range of 800℃ to 900℃ within 2 hours. To prevent further oxidation during carbonation, calcium sulfate (CaO4S) was first introduced to mixing gases with CO2 and Ar and then led to meet in the chamber. The lithium carbonate obtained was examined by inductively coupled plasma–mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and it was found that of lithium carbonate with a purity above 99% was recovered.
Copper slag differs by chemical composition and structure, depending on the type of processing. Copper slag typically contains about 1 wt.% copper and 40 wt.% iron depending upon the initial ore quality and type of furnace used. The aim is to produce a typical foundry pig iron with the chemical composition of C > 3.40 wt.%, Si 1.40 to 1.80 wt.%, Mn 0.30 to 0.90 wt.%, P < 0.03 wt.% and S < 0.03 wt.% from copper slag. But foundry pig iron manufactured from copper slag contains a high sulphur content. Therefore, this study examines how to conduct desulphurization. Desulphurization roasting and reduction smelting with desulphurization additives used to remove sulphur from the copper slag. The results showed that desulphurization effect of desulphurization roasting is poor but when combined with reduction smelting with CaO addition is possible to manufacture low sulphur pig iron from copper smelting slag.