Sieving and classification

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.

Density separation

Separating materials by density in air or liquid: light separator and plastic film rise or float, heavier copper, aluminium and electrode fragments fall or sink.

Mechanical pre-treatment

The front end of most recycling plants: shredding cells or modules, drying off the electrolyte and separating the stream into casings, copper and aluminium foil, plastics and black mass. How cleanly this is done sets the purity, and the cost, of everything downstream.

References & further reading

Further reading on this topic

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

1. Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

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

2. Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles

   Gavin Harper et al. · Nature · 2019

   Topic background · Reuse, disassembly and mechanical, hydro-, pyro- and direct recycling routes.