A simplistic and novel leaching process is developed to dispose spent lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO

4

) batteries. In this paper

oxalic acid is selected as a leaching reagent to recover lithium as a resource and remove phosphorus from LiFePO

4

batteries

benefiting from its low natural effects. The physical properties of spent cathode materials (before leaching) and residues (after leaching) are identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The total amounts of Li and Fe are analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES). The process occurs under conditions of a 0.3 mol·L

-1

oxalic acid concentration

a temperature of 80°C

a reaction time of 60 min and a solid/liquid ratio of 60 g· L

-1

. It can effectively precipitate ~92% ferrum in terms of FeC

2

O

4

·2H

2

O from LiFePO

4

with the leaching efficiency of Li achieving up to 98%. This method demonstrates a new strategy for dealing with spent lithium iron phosphate batteries with a low cost and low environmental impact.