ERI: A Fundamental Investigation of the Effectiveness of Cathode Regeneration Process for Spent Lithium Ion Batteries

ERI：废旧锂离子电池阴极再生过程有效性的基础研究

基本信息

批准号：
2138553
负责人：
Hosop Shin
金额：
$ 20万
依托单位：
Indiana University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2022
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2022-03-01 至 2025-02-28
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2138553&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
ERI Fundamental Investigation Effectiveness Cathode

项目摘要

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).As the consumption of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in the transportation and consumer electronic sectors rapidly increases, the volume of spent LIBs requiring disposal or recycling is expected to reach more than 11 million metric tons by 2030. However, less than 5% of spent LIBs are currently recycled. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop an environmentally friendly and economically viable LIB recycling technology to manage the hazardous, albeit valuable, large volumes of spent LIBs. This project will systematically explore a direct recycling process that could potentially maximize the return value from end-of-life LIBs, aiming to recover and reuse the most valuable cathode material in spent LIBs for new LIB manufacturing. The outcomes of the project will facilitate the development of direct cathode recycling that contributes to minimizing the environmental impacts of LIB wastes, securing the future supply of battery raw materials, lowering the cost of LIB production, and improving the sustainability of the LIB industry. The research results will be broadly disseminated through academic journals, conferences, science festivals, and educational videos, inspiring new ideas for LIB recycling technologies and improving people’s understanding of the economic and environmental impacts of LIB recycling. Furthermore, students of various education levels, especially underrepresented minorities and women in the STEM fields, will be trained by providing hands-on laboratory experiences. The overarching goal of this project is to establish a fundamental understanding of the effectiveness of direct recycling on spent cathodes at different degrees of degradation. Given the fact that end-of-life LIBs are generated under different cycling conditions, the spent cathodes are expected to exhibit various levels of degradation that involve lithium loss, irreversible phase transformation, inter/intragranular cracking, dissolution of transition metals, and surface layer formation. To simulate the spent cathodes at various degradation conditions and how they are regenerated by a direct recycling process, different types of chemically delithiated cathodes are synthesized, characterized, and regenerated. This project seeks to attain its primary goal by pursuing two specific aims: (1) to examine the chemical, structural, and electrochemical stabilities of chemically delithiated cathodes during solvent-based separation processing and (2) to determine the effectiveness of direct cathode regeneration for rejuvenating chemically delithiated cathodes at different degradation extents. The findings from this research will advance our understanding of the mechanisms behind direct cathode recycling and accelerate the process development. The new knowledge gained from this project will lay a solid foundation to guide the formulation of strategies for effectively regenerating cathode materials from spent LIBs at different state-of-health conditions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该奖项的全部或部分资金根据《2021 年美国救援计划法案》（公法 117-2）提供。随着运输和消费电子领域锂离子电池 (LIB) 的消耗量迅速增加，花费的数量预计到 2030 年，需要处置或回收的锂离子电池将超过 1100 万吨。然而，目前回收的废锂离子电池不足 5%，因此迫切需要开发一种可回收的锂离子电池。环保且经济可行的锂离子电池回收技术，用于管理危险但有价值的大量废锂离子电池。该项目将系统地探索一种直接回收工艺，可以最大限度地提高报废锂离子电池的返回价值，旨在回收和利用。将废锂离子电池中最有价值的正极材料重新用于新的锂离子电池制造，该项目的成果将促进直接正极回收的发展，有助于最大限度地减少锂离子电池废物对环境的影响，确保未来电池原材料的供应，降低成本。研究成果将通过学术期刊、会议、科学节和教育视频广泛传播，激发锂离子电池回收技术的新想法，并提高人们对经济和环境影响的理解。此外，不同教育水平的学生，特别是 STEM 领域代表性不足的少数族裔和女性，将通过提供实验室实践经验来接受培训。该项目的首要目标是建立对直接回收的有效性的基本了解。考虑到报废锂离子电池是在不同的循环条件下产生的，废阴极预计会表现出不同程度的降解，包括锂损失、不可逆相变、晶粒内/晶粒内。为了模拟各种降解条件下的废阴极以及它们如何通过直接回收过程再生，合成了不同类型的化学脱锂阴极，该项目旨在通过实现两个具体目标来实现其主要目标：（1）检查溶剂基分离过程中化学脱锂阴极的化学、结构和电化学稳定性；（2）确定其有效性。这项研究的结果将加深我们对直接阴极回收机制的理解，并加速从该项目中获得的新知识。为指导制定在不同健康状况下从废锂离子电池中有效再生阴极材料的策略奠定了坚实的基础。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持标准。