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Batteries
Special Issues
Innovative Technologies for Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries Recycling and Recovery
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Innovative Technologies for Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries Recycling and Recovery

A special issue of Batteries (ISSN 2313-0105). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Manufacturing and Circular Economy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2026) | Viewed by 2184

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Di Huang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division (ESDR), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Interests: energy storage; nanomaterials; lithium-ion batteries; solid-state batteries
Dr. Xiuyu Jin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
The Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division (ESDR), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Interests: energy technologies; batteries; batteries recycling

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid expansion of lithium-ion battery (LIB) applications in electric vehicles and renewable energy storage has created an urgent need for sustainable end-of-life solutions, making the recycling of spent LIBs crucial for both environmental protection and resource sustainability. This Special Issue aims to address key technological advancements in LIB recycling and recovery, covering novel mechanical, hydrometallurgical, and pyrometallurgical processes for valuable material recycling, as well as direct regeneration methods for cathode/anode materials to enable their recovery and reuse in new energy storage systems. We particularly encourage innovative approaches that minimize environmental footprints throughout the LIB recycling value chain.

By focusing on these critical areas, this issue seeks to promote the development of efficient technologies that support circular economy principles and transform recycled/recovered LIB materials into valuable feedstock for various applications.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Advanced metallurgical processes: Innovations in hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy for efficient metal recovery
  • Direct recycling: Cathode/anode regeneration techniques preserving material structure
  • Black mass valorization: Graphite refinement, binder recovery, and electrolyte reclamation
  • Next-gen battery recycling: Solid-state battery component recovery strategies
  • Green processing: Sustainable, low-energy chemical methods and bio-based (e.g., bioleaching) approaches
  • Circular systems: Closed-loop recycling integrating material recovery and remanufacturing of batteries or other high-value functional materials

Dr. Di Huang
Dr. Xiuyu Jin
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Batteries is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • lithium-ion battery
  • direct recycling
  • pyrometallurgy
  • hydrometallurgy
  • close-loop recycling
  • green processing

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

27 pages, 10625 KB  
Article
Two-Stage Organic Acid Leaching of Industrially Sourced LFP- and NMC-Containing Black Mass
by Marc Simon Henderson, Chau Chun Beh, Elsayed A. Oraby and Jacques Eksteen
Batteries 2025, 11(11), 401; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries11110401 - 31 Oct 2025
Viewed by 1896
Abstract
Over the next 5–10 years, the feedstock to lithium-ion battery recycling facilities will shift from Co- and Ni-rich chemistries to lower-value battery chemistries, such as lithium iron phosphate (LFP). Traditional recycling processes use toxic and corrosive inorganic acids for leaching, generating toxic waste [...] Read more.
Over the next 5–10 years, the feedstock to lithium-ion battery recycling facilities will shift from Co- and Ni-rich chemistries to lower-value battery chemistries, such as lithium iron phosphate (LFP). Traditional recycling processes use toxic and corrosive inorganic acids for leaching, generating toxic waste streams. The low-value feedstocks will be LFP-rich with contamination from lithium cobalt oxide (LCO) and lithium–nickel–manganese–cobalt oxide (NMC) battery chemistries. Overall, the lower-value feedstock coupled with the need to reduce environmentally damaging waste streams requires the development of robust, green leaching processes capable of selectively targeting the LFP and LCO/NMC battery chemistries. This research concluded that a first-stage oxalic acid leach could selectively extract Al, Li, and P from the industrially sourced LFP-rich black mass. When operating at the optimal conditions (0.5 M oxalic acid, 5% solids, pH 0.8, and an agitation speed of 600 rpm), >99% of the Li and P and >97% of the Al were selectively extracted after 2 h, while Mn, Fe, Cu, Ni, and Co extractions were kept relatively low, namely, at 19%, <3%, <1%, 0%, and 0%. This research also explored a second-stage leach to treat the first-stage leach residue using ascorbic acid, citric acid, and glycine. It was concluded that when leaching with glycine (30 g/L glycine, a temperature of 40 °C, an agitation speed of 600 rpm, and 2% solids at pH 9.6), that >97% of the Co, >77% of the Ni, and 41% of the Mn were extracted, while the co-extraction percentages of Cu, Fe, and Al were <27%, <4%, and <2%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Technologies for Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries Recycling and Recovery)
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