Spent lithium-ion battery materials recycling for catalytic pyrolysis or gasification of biomass

Liang Chen; Pu Wang; Yafei Shen; Mingming Guo

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124584

Spent lithium-ion battery materials recycling for catalytic pyrolysis or gasification of biomass

Bioresour Technol. 2021 Mar:323:124584. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124584. Epub 2020 Dec 28.

Authors

Liang Chen¹, Pu Wang¹, Yafei Shen², Mingming Guo³

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control (AEMPC), School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST), Nanjing 210044, China.
² Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control (AEMPC), School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (NUIST), Nanjing 210044, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, NUIST, Nanjing 210044, China. Electronic address: shen1225@nuist.edu.cn.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), 800 Dongchuan Rd., Shanghai 200240, China; Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recovery, Shanghai 200240, China.

PMID: 33373799
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124584

Abstract

This research work studied the pyrolysis characteristics of main biomass components (i.e. cellulose, lignin) in the presence of the spent Li-ion battery cathode (BC) enriched in transition-metals (e.g., Ni, Co). The BC with a good thermostability even at > 700 °C could be used as a catalyst for biomass conversion. The addition methods of BC to biomass such as one-step (directly mixing) and two-step (impregnation-drying) were comparatively studied. The two-step method had a better catalytic effect in biomass pyrolysis, contributing to the reduction of decomposition temperature and activation energy. Significantly, the two-step method had a strong catalytic effect in reducing the content of cellulose-derived sugars and increasing the content of ketones via dehydration and decarboxylation. In addition, the BC used by the two-step method had a high potential for biomass pyrolysis or gasification in promoting the catalytic cracking (i.e. H-transfer) of lignin-derived phenols (tar surrogates) to hydrocarbons and aliphatics (e.g., ketones).

Keywords: Battery cathode; Catalytic pyrolysis; Cellulose; Lignin; Tar reduction.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Catalysis
Lignin
Lithium*
Pyrolysis*

Substances

Lignin
Lithium