In recent years, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been widely used in portable electronic devices and electric vehicles, because of their lightweight, small volume, low self-discharge, high voltage, high specific energy, no memory effect and long storage life. It is estimated that by 2020, the number and weight of spent LIBs will exceed 25 billion and 500000 tons, respectively, and the recycling and reuse of spent LIBs are receiving more and more attention. The spent LIBs are generally physically disassembled, crushed, sieved, magnetically selected, washed, and thermally pretreated, to obtain LiNixCoyMnOz positive electrode powders containing a small number of impurities such as Al, Cu, Fe, etc. As one of the main impurities in the LiNixCoyMnOz positive electrode powders, aluminum has attracted extensive attention from many scholars. At present, the neutralization method is mainly adopted to remove aluminum, and the Al(OH)3 is removed by adding an alkaline substance such as CaO to the acidic leachate. However, a large amount of slag, difficulty infiltration, and heavy loss of valuable metals such as Ni and Co make it unfavorable for the clean production. Various methods have been developed to solve these problems such as pretreatment, neutralization, solvent extraction methods, etc. In this work, the existing methods of removing aluminum from the LiNixCoyMnOz positive electrode powders were reviewed in detail. The principles, advantages and disadvantages of these methods were briefly introduced, and the development direction of the technology of removing aluminum was prospected.