Extraction and purification of lithium hydroxide monohydrate from used lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles, for battery cell production

EarLi is a new project led by ACCUREC to create an economical and innovative process for recovering lithium from spent electromobile lithium-ion batteries. Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection, the project has a total budget of over 5 million euros.

While metals such as nickel or cobalt can already be recovered from batteries with high yields, this is not yet the case with lithium due to the complex technical effort involved. But the research efforts are getting a boost from the EU: with the new battery regulation, the European legislator is making the recovery of lithium mandatory from 2026.

The goal of Accurec, Evonik, IME and Oeko-Institut is to install a process on an industrial scale with thermochemical treatment and electrochemical separation to recover lithium as a high-purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate. The Oeko-Institut is carrying out the life cycle assessment.