This research cooperated with UWin Nanotech Co., Ltd. to recover, separate and purify lithium and cobalt metals in waste lithium-cobalt batteries. The use of nitric acid with impregnant can effectively improve the extraction efficiency of metals. In the process, nitric acid waste liquid treated by vacuum distillation to recover the waste acid before discharge, and the crystals after distillation will be dissolved in water for the electrochemical module for separation and purification. The goal of this research is to establish a waste lithium cobalt battery recycling process, including the development of impregnant and electrochemical separation technology, the recovery of nitric acid in the impregnation waste liquid by vacuum distillation, and the establishment of a systematic functional assessment of its environment, economy and engineering. The results of the study found that in the 50 g waste lithium cobalt battery powder immersion test, it was found that nitric acid has a higher extraction efficiency, and 175 ml of 68% nitric acid was used with 75 ml of UW-530 impregnant, at a temperature of 80 oC, solid-liquid ratio of 1:5, it has a high extraction efficiency of 99.1% cobalt and 99.5% lithium, and for a 1 kg test with a larger volume, 99.93% and 99.85% of lithium and cobalt can be extracted under the same conditions. In addition, the waste liquid after metals stripping was treated by vacuum distillation. After vacuum distillation, the amount of waste liquid can be reduced by 93.5%, For the separation of electrochemical module, the batch experiment is carried out with a solution containing 1 g/L Cobalt with 0.5 g/L lithium, and the applied voltage is 16 volts. Within 70 minutes, a separation efficiency of 99.9% for lithium ion and 98.6% for cobalt ion can be achieved. The energy consumption is 0.019 kWh/g cobalt and 0.011 kWh/g lithium with productivity 17.4 g/hr/m2 and 30.8 g/hr/m2. For real sample, the proportion of lithium can be purified from 4.40% to 29.25% in base recovery cell, and the proportion of cobalt is 53.45% purity in acid recovery cell. The energy consumption of cobalt and lithium are 0.020 kWh/g and 0.098 kWh/g.

Electrochemical separation and purification technology, Metal leaching reagent Nitrogen oxide reduction