An overview of recycling and treatment of spent LiFePO4 batteries in China

The number of spent LiFePO4 batteries has increased with the rapid development of the electric vehicle industry in China. Recycling of spent LiFePO4 batteries is important not only for the treatment of waste but also for the recovery of useful resources. However, the treatment of spent LiFePO4 batteries is challenging because LiFePO4 batteries do not contain any precious metals, treatment is complex using traditional recycling process, and the number of spent batteries recovered from the public has been very small recently. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize the existing problems and propose a proper recycling route for spent LiFePO4 batteries. In this paper, the current status of spent LiFePO4 batteries recycling in China is introduced, and the environmental benefits of recycling are analyzed. The state of the art in preprocessing of End-of-Life LiFePO4 batteries and the final batteries recovery is discussed in detail. Based on the review, optimizing the recycling mode, increasing the precious metals recovery efficiency, and decreasing the chemical reagents consumption by effective materials liberation and separation are proposed as potential improvement strategies to make the recycling chain more environmentally friendly.