As the demand for lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles is increasing, it is important to recover valuable metals from waste lithium-ion batteries. In this study, the effects of gas flow rate and hydrogen partial pressure on hydrogen reduction of NCM-based lithium-ion battery cathode materials were investigated. As the gas flow rate and hydrogen partial pressure increased, the weight loss rate increased significantly from the beginning of the reaction due to the reduction of NiO and CoO by hydrogen. At 700 °C and hydrogen partial pressure above 0.5 atm, Ni and Li2O were produced by hydrogen reduction. From the reduction product and Li recovery rate, the hydrogen reduction of NCM-based cathode materials was significantly affected by hydrogen partial pressure. The Li compounds recovered from the solution after water leaching of the reduction products were LiOH, LiOH·H2O, and Li2CO3, with about 0.02 wt% Al as an impurity.

The hydrogen reduction behavior of the CuO-Co3O4 powder mixture for the synthesis of the homogeneous Cu-15at%Co composite powder has been investigated. The composite powder is prepared by ball milling the oxide powders, followed by a hydrogen reduction process. The reduction behavior of the ball-milled powder mixture is analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and temperature-programmed reduction at different heating rates in an Ar-10%H2 atmosphere. The scanning electron microscopy and XRD results reveal that the hydrogen-reduced powder mixture is composed of fine agglomerates of nanosized Cu and Co particles. The hydrogen reduction kinetics is studied by determining the degree of peak shift as a function of the heating rate. The activation energies for the reduction of the oxide powders estimated from the slopes of the Kissinger plots are 58.1 kJ/mol and 65.8 kJ/mol, depending on the reduction reaction: CuO to Cu and Co3O4 to Co, respectively. The measured temperature and activation energy for the reduction of Co3O4 are explained on the basis of the effect of pre-reduced Cu particles.

In this study, the reduction kinetics and behaviors of oxides in the water-atomized iron powder have been evaluated as a function of temperature ranging 850-1000˚C in hydrogen environment, and compared to the reduction behaviors of individual iron oxides including Fe2O3, Fe3O4 and FeO. The water-atomized iron powder contained a significant amount of iron oxides, mainly Fe3O4 and FeO, which were formed as a partially-continuous surface layer and an inner inclusion. During hydrogen reduction, a significant weight loss in the iron powder occurred in the initial stage of 10 min by the reduction of surface oxides, and then further reduction underwent slowly with increasing time. A higher temperature in the hydrogen reduction promoted a high purity of iron powder, but no significant change in the reduction occurred above 950˚C. Sequence reduction process by an alternating environment of hydrogen and inert gases effectively removed the oxide scale in the iron powder, which lowered reduction temperature and/or shortened reduction time.

The effect of Cu content on hydrogen reduction behavior of ball-milled -CuO nanocomposite powders was investigated. Hydrogen reduction behavior and reduction percent() of nanopowders were characterized by thermogravimetry (TG) and hygrometry measurements. Activation energy for hydrogen reduction of nanopowders with different Cu content was calculated at each heating rate and reduction percent(). The activation energy for reduction of obtained in this study existed in the ranging from 129 to 139 kJ/mol, which was in accordance with the activation energy for powder reduction of conventional micron-sized