Mechanical pre-treatment

Example

See it in the plant

1. Shred under nitrogen: 30.38 t of cells are cut by two counter-rotating knife shafts in a nitrogen-filled chamber, so the electrolyte vapour cannot ignite.
2. Dry: the shredded material is heated and held under vacuum. 2700 kg leaves as volatiles: solvents to gas treatment.
3. Screen: the vibrating screen lets the fine coating powder fall through its mesh. 13.18 t of black mass carries 92% of the lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese.
4. Classify: the coarse pieces meet an upward air stream in a zig-zag channel. Heavy copper foil falls (3342 kg), aluminium foil leaves in the middle (6178 kg) and light plastics fly over the top (2755 kg).
5. Catch: the cyclone and filters take the dust out of the air: 2227 kg of fines, counted as a loss.

Use in Lemonergy

Distinguish recovered material from a qualified product.

This is a reference concept. No executable Lemonergy block has been verified for this term.

Connected concepts

Related concepts from the knowledge graph. Connections show context, not cause and effect. Hover or focus a linked term for its definition.

Black mass

The dark powder of mixed electrode materials left after end-of-life cells are discharged, shredded and separated from their casings, foils and separators. It is the traded intermediate that hydrometallurgical refiners buy.

Eddy-current separation

Ejecting non-ferrous metals such as aluminium from a moving stream with a rapidly rotating magnetic field, which induces currents in conductive pieces and throws them off the belt. It recovers casing and foil aluminium.

Hydrometallurgy

Recycling by dissolving black mass in acid and separating the metals as salts by precipitation and solvent extraction. It recovers lithium and gives battery-grade products, at the cost of chemical consumption and wastewater.

Magnetic separation

Pulling steel — cylindrical-cell cans, screws, brackets — out of the shredded stream with magnets, usually the first separation after shredding.

Shredding

Breaking cells or modules into fragments, under an inert gas, in a liquid or in a vacuum so that the released electrolyte and any remaining charge cannot ignite. Off-gas treatment captures the solvent vapour and the hydrogen fluoride it forms.

Sieving and classification

Splitting shredded material by particle size: the fine fraction is mostly black mass, the coarse fractions mostly foil, casing and separator. Air classifiers do the same by size and density in a gas stream.

References & further reading

Technical references

1. Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles

   Gavin Harper et al. · Nature · 2019

   Technical reference · Reuse, disassembly and mechanical, hydro-, pyro- and direct recycling routes.

Further reading on this topic

These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.

2. Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

   Topic background · Battery construction, recycling routes and U.S. waste-management context.