Ramesh Bhave at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

CMI Project 3.1.15: Separation and recovery of cobalt from e-waste

Ramesh Bhave at Oak Ridge National Laboratory leads the CMI project "Separation and recovery of cobalt from e-waste"

In this project, the recovery and separation of cobalt from e-wastes, including scrap and spent lithium ion batteries (LIBs), will be conducted using a novel energy efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly supported membrane solvent extraction (MSX) process. After developing the separation methods, liquid membrane composition and the process parameters will be comprehensively investigated and optimized to achieve high purity (>99%), recovery (>95%), and extraction rates for cobalt recovery. The versatility of the MSX process will be demonstrated for separation and recovery of cobalt from wide variety of feedstocks such as swarf and scrap LIBs. Furthermore, the long-term stability studies of extractants used in MSX processes will also be carried out.

Related information:

CMI Webinars - several CMI webinars have been offered related to recycling and to this project

CMI Invention Disclosures

Earlier work related to this project led to the first CMI license