The fast-growing market of lithium iron phosphate batteries will lead to the generation of increasing volumes of end-of-life batteries in the next decades which currently are not properly valorized, leading to the loss of strategic resources. In the present study, a hydrometallurgical process to recover lithium carbonate, iron phosphate and carbon from the cathodic powder of lithium iron phosphate batteries is proposed. The process avoids the use of oxidants by using iron (III) chloride, which was proved to be an effective leaching agent allowing quantitative lithium dissolution within 30 min. After iron removal by precipitation with ammonium hydroxide, lithium was recovered as carbonate by precipitation with sodium carbonate in the presence of acetone. The overall lithium recovery yield was higher than 80%, achieving a final purity of 99% after a washing step with a solution constituted by ethanol and water. The leaching residue was treated with hydrochloric acid to dissolve iron and phosphorus content, leaving carbon in the residue. Precipitation with ammonium hydroxide was applied on the hydrochloric leachate to quantitatively recover iron and phosphorus as iron phosphate. The process was validated on a demonstrative scale, confirming its feasibility and identifying key parameters for future industrialization. © The Author(s) 2026.

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