ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,297,518, issued on May 13, was assigned to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, Mass.).
"Lithium recovery process" was invented by Yan Wang (Acton, Mass.), Jiahui Hou (Worcester, Mass.), Xiaotu Ma (Worcester, Mass.) and Jinzhao Fu (Worcester, Mass.).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "Lithium recycling from expended Li-Ion batteries occurs thought selective recovery of lithium charge materials from a recycling stream including transition metals used for the charge material. Li recovery includes dissolving the lithium based charge material in an organic acid having a resistance or lack of affinity to dissolution of transition metals, and...