Lithium iron phosphate is widely used in electric vehicles and energy storage batteries because of its high safety, long cycle life and low cost. At present, the main recovery process is to achieve lithium extraction through oxidation roasting and dilute acid leaching, which will produce a large amount of phosphorus and iron residue.

Calculated with 1 ton of lithium iron phosphate cathode material waste, about 0.13 tons of lithium carbonate can be recovered, and more than 1 ton of waste slag (dry slag) of iron phosphorus can be produced. If not properly handled, will take up a lot of storage space and need to pay high processing costs. Because phosphorus and iron slag contains a lot of phosphorus and iron, it must be used as resources to maximize the value.

There are a lot of impurities in the waste of ferric phosphate, and the conventional process cannot obtain battery-grade ferric phosphate. Although it is feasible to regenerate phosphorus into wet phosphoric acid, the operation cost is too high, resulting in poor economy. To solve this technical problem, we developed an efficient extraction process of battery grade iron orthophosphate.

The sources of ferric phosphate waste usually include ferric phosphate waste slag (without lithium), ferric phosphate waste (without lithium), lithium ferric phosphate waste, lithium ferric phosphate waste pole sheet and lithium ferric phosphate waste battery, etc. According to the different characteristics of various systems, we have developed a very adaptable GC-CA recovery process.

The process provides treatment means for aluminum, calcium, magnesium and other heavy metal impurities in the waste, realizes the regeneration of iron orthophosphoric acid, reduces the operation cost, and solves the difficult problem of excessive solid waste generated by lithium iron phosphate waste battery. The project has been put into use in the 10,000 ton production line in China, and has produced good economic benefits.