Coupling the recovery of spent lithium-ion batteries and the treatment of phenol wastewater: A “treating waste with waste” strategy

The recovery of spent lithium-ion batteries and the treatment of phenol wastewater are both environmental and social issues. In this study, the enhanced recovery of spent lithium-ion batteries and the efficient treatment of phenol wastewater are smartly coupled via a "treating waste with waste" strategy. Under optimal conditions, the leaching process involving phenol achieves 98% and 96% efficiency for Co and Li, respectively. After precipitation, Co and Li could be recovered as Co(OH)2 and Li2CO3, and the precipitated Co(OH)2 was further calcined to generate Co3O4. Furthermore, the organic contaminants that remained in the waste-leaching solution could be removed by a spent graphite-activating peroxymonosulfate (PMS) process. It is noteworthy that the total organic carbon (TOC) in the waste-leaching solution could be removed using fewer PMS compared with the original phenol wastewater owing to the pre-oxidation of phenol during the leaching process, further confirming the advantage of this "treating waste with waste" strategy.