Solvent Extraction of Cu/Li from the Leach Liquor of Spent Batteries of used Electronic devices

Abstract

Present work is a part of a process which consists of pre-treatment, leaching and solvent extraction. In this paper, solvent extraction process has been discussed for the selective extraction and separation of metals from synthetic solution similar to the leach liquor of lithium ion batteries. The studies were carried out to recover and separate the valuable metals of Cu and Li from the synthetic solution using 5% LIX984N diluted in kerosene. The copper was selectively extracted by LIX 984N from aqueous solution containing 5.0 g/L Cu at pH 1.99 and O/A ratio 1:1 leaving lithium in aqueous raffinate. Copper was stripped from loaded LIX 984N by 10% sulfuric acid to get pure copper sulfate solution to produce metal or salt through evaporation or crystallization. Two stages are required for 99% extraction of copper using 5% LIX984N with pH ranging from 3 to 3.5 and shaking time of 5 minutes. The developed process could be employed on commercial scale for extraction and separation of metals from the sulfate solution after validating the data on large scale.