The invention relates to a method for recovering the valuable metals in a waste
nickel-
cobalt-
manganese-
lithium ion battery by an
ion exchange method, which comprises the following steps of disassembling, discharging and crushing the waste
nickel-
cobalt-
manganese-
lithium ion battery, leaching, replacing the
leachate with
nickel powder or
cobalt powder to remove the
copper, and hydrolyzing with a valuable
metal alkali solution as a neutralizer to remove the iron and aluminum; regenerating the
chelating resin with a
lithium hydroxide solution, adsorbing the nickel, cobalt and
manganese in the
impurity-removed solution, and
backwashing with
sulfuric acid to obtain a nickel-cobalt-manganese
mixed solution; and recovering the lithium in the liquid after resin adsorption in the form of
lithium hydroxide. According to the method, the stripping and leaching of the waste nickel cobalt lithium
manganate ion battery are completed in one step, the
impurity elements are not introduced during the
leachate impurity removal and valuable
metal separation and extraction process, the
lithium hydroxide used for
ion exchange resin is regenerated via the
lithium hydroxide, at the same time, the nickel-cobalt-manganese is absorbed, so that the lithium is prevented from being adsorbed and entering a nickel, cobalt and manganese solution to be lost, and the lithium
recovery is prevented from being influenced due to the
high sodium ion content in the solution with the
sodium hydroxide. According to the present invention, the
recovery rate of nickel, cobalt and manganese reaches 98% or above, the
recovery rate of lithium reaches 90% or above, the technological process is short, the equipment is few, and the cost is low.