# Lithium Recycling from old batteries.



## Eamonn

Hi
I recently read an article in new scientist about high deposits of lithium found in cornwall UK and I was thinking would it be profitable to recover from old batteries and how would it be done?
I'm sure someone here knows more about this than I do.
Eamonn


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## butcher

It can be dangerous.


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## galenrog

The best way to make money off old lithium batteries is to sell them to a scrap dealer that pays for them. Since I know of none in my area, I store them until I know I am going by a scrap yard that accepts them free. About every other month for me.


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## Eamonn

> The best way to make money off old lithium batteries is to sell them to a scrap dealer that pays for them. Since I know of none in my area, I store them until I know I am going by a scrap yard that accepts them free. About every other month for me



I agree. I would like to know the process though.
Thanks
Eamonn


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## mls26cwru

I do not know what the process is, but an interesting tidbit on the safety measures involved...

I once had a job as an air emissions testing technician and we did some work for a company called Brush-Wellman... They processed lithium for some reason or another. At the end of every shift, safety suits were collected from every worker and all workers had to take a shower before they could leave the plant. Waste water from the showers were collected and treated on site. Even visitors (like us) had to abide by these rules, so it always made me wonder about the dangers of handling lithium.


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## butcher

I was thinking more of the dangers of fire or explosion, lithium a very reactive alkali metal does not like being in metal form, and can explode just from the reaction with atmospheric air.

Some batteries can have metal lithium others use salts of the metal.
the metal like many other metals can be a medicine or a poison...
It is also used to make illegal drugs like methamphetamine, you could also find yourself trying to explain your back yard lab to the DEA...

Why try and refine the metal, just sell the battery. I believe the lithium in some batteries would not need refining.

If you plan on storing these battery's be sure to learn the dangers and precautions involved.

A quick search for some info on the metal Lithium is a good place to learn more about this metal.

http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/li.htm
http://www.bipolar-lives.com/lithium-toxicity-symptoms.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium%E2%80%93air_battery
http://www.lenntech.com/periodic/elements/li.htm 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_burning 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lithium




https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=lithium%20and%20fire%20chemical%20reaction


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## anachronism

Agreed.

I buy tonnes of these per month for £1000 per tonne or thereabouts, there's a good trade in them. No need to run the risk of cracking them open.

The worst plant fire I ever saw was a skid full that caught fire and the fire service refused to listen the reason and sprayed it down with water...


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## UncleBenBen

anachronism said:


> The worst plant fire I ever saw was a skid full that caught fire and the fire service refused to listen the reason and sprayed it down with water...



Oh snap!! Bet it didn't take long to figure out they messed up! I hope not too many got hurt. Just the image in my mind made me shudder...


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## Rougemillenial

Eamonn said:


> Hi
> I recently read an article in new scientist about high deposits of lithium found in cornwall UK and I was thinking would it be profitable to recover from old batteries and how would it be done?
> I'm sure someone here knows more about this than I do.
> Eamonn


 You could try but definitely wear proper PPE. Diethyl ether, lithium cobalt oxide, and the other stuff could definitely mess you up. Discharge the batteries, pyrolyze the scrapings in a paint can, burn off the carbon, magnetically separate the iron, dissolve the Lithium compounds in hydrochloric acid. Then just add baking soda to precipitate the cobalt as cobalt carbonate. The lithium carbonate solution can be heated to a concentrated syrup and then cool it down to ice tea type temperatures then filter the lithium carbonate. further purification is extremely difficult


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## Topher_osAUrus

Sounds like it would just be better to recover the 18650's that are still testing and charging as functional, and any broke ones or obscure cells should be properly recycled for a little change


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## tortuga09

En France je le revends entre 1000 à 1200 € tonne .


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## anachronism

I'd buy them if you would like to send me a PM


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## scrappappy

After having to discharge and properly dispose of a LiPo battery, I would gladly give them away for free. My son has rc cars/drones.. been there, done that.


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## Topher_osAUrus

Send em my way, Ill put them to good use


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## Rougemillenial

Eamonn said:


> Hi
> I recently read an article in new scientist about high deposits of lithium found in cornwall UK and I was thinking would it be profitable to recover from old batteries and how would it be done?
> I'm sure someone here knows more about this than I do.
> Eamonn


Lithium batteries are definitely not easy to deal with. Extractions and Ire made a video on it where he actually sprayed the LiCoOx off the substrate, let it settle out, then dissolved it in HCl, and then he got some some sodium oxalate which crashed out the cobalt. Then he added sodium carbonate to crash out the lithium. However this process is extremely low yielding

As for an actual process, I suggest just taking the batteries and directly chuck them into a destructive distillation apparatus possibly making a small vent in each. Heat them up really hot to distill out the plastic. When syngas stops exiting, close off the reaction chamber from the rest of the system for the next step 

(to prevent a potential risk of an explosion by fuel vapor air mix. this last bit is critical when doing this next step.)

Now open up valve to open the system to the oxygen in the air while it’s still glowing hot. All the carbon is extremely hot and has a massive surface area so this essentially causes what’s known as a flash combustion. The carbon is all well above it’s autoignition temperature, has an insanely high reactive cross section, and hasn’t cooled on the inside. All the carbon can essentially burn at once.

If you used pure oxygen, you may very well get some rather extreme fireworks as it would cause your container to flash boil due to the extreme heat since such a fire can easily get above 5,000C! I myself learned this one the hard way on a paint can scale as I poured LOX on the material afterwards after it fumed quite a bit due to long chain hydrocarbons left over. Don’t ask me how I managed to get access to this stuff especially as a teen.

Ok after this, get some HCl and dissolve everything left over. Chlorine gas will be generated so a gas scrubber and PPE are no brainers.

Now, there’s two things you can do now. You could use hydrogen sulfide to precipitate all the transition metals then boil down to get your lithium salt 

Or you can boil everything down and do a solvent extraction with ethanol as Lithium Chloride is actually soluble in ethanol while the other stuff isn’t. Then just evaporate the ethanol.

I’d recommend the second to be honest since it’s far less toxic.

Hope this helps.


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## Topher_osAUrus

:roll:


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## jimdoc

The only local place I have found that buys scrap lithium batteries seem to only care if they have cobalt in them.


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## jason_recliner

anachronism said:


> The worst plant fire I ever saw was a skid full that caught fire and the fire service refused to listen the reason and sprayed it down with water...


That's astounding. 
As a former firefighter: we were taught right off the bat, I mean literally day 1, classification of fires and what NOT to do.

My reaction rhymes with _Off a duck's lake_.


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## anachronism

jason_recliner said:


> anachronism said:
> 
> 
> 
> The worst plant fire I ever saw was a skid full that caught fire and the fire service refused to listen the reason and sprayed it down with water...
> 
> 
> 
> That's astounding.
> As a former firefighter: we were taught right off the bat, I mean literally day 1, classification of fires and what NOT to do.
> 
> My reaction rhymes with _Off a duck's lake_.
Click to expand...


Yeah I was there- they wouldn't listen to reason. It was a colleague's site. He had seen the batteries begin to smolder- lifted them on a fork truck and put them out in the yard away from anything else and called the fire brigade who then proceeded to make it a lot worse than it needed to be. Maybe they were having a slow day and wanted some excitement.


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