Waste lithium ion batteries - An alternative resource to recover lithium and cobalt

Lithium is dominantly used in the lithium ion rechargeable batteries as electrochemical power sources in mobile phones due to its light weight, high energy density, high potential difference and good performance. These batteries are treated as waste when they reached their end-of-life. Due to the stringent environmental regulation and conservation of limited natural resources, the recycling of cobalt and lithium is necessary. Present paper reports the generation of varieties of lithium ion-batteries, its environmental effect and the global research work going-on in this direction. Based on the experimental work and proof of concept a process flow-sheet has been proposed.