Battery knowledge · Recycling and end of life
Lithium recovery
Getting the lithium back, which smelting loses to slag and older hydrometallurgical flowsheets left until last at low yield. Newer routes take it out first — by roasting or carbonating black mass and washing out a lithium salt — before the other metals are leached. [1]
- Also called
- early lithium extraction, lithium-first recovery
Example
Lithium is recovered last, so its chain is the shortest
R_Li = 0.92 × 0.99 × 0.99 × 0.98 × 0.85 = 0.751. The 80 % row for 2031 needs a lithium step recovery of at least 0.905.
The purification (0.99) and solvent-extraction bleed (0.98) factors are held at the study’s defaults. The EU rows are Annex XII Part C of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542.
Explore the graph
Lithium passes the same units as nickel and cobalt and is then recovered from a dilute raffinate, where most of its loss happens.
R_Li = 0.92 × 0.99 × 0.99 × 0.98 × 0.85 = 0.751. The 80 % row for 2031 needs a lithium step recovery of at least 0.905.
R_Li = y_black mass × η_leach,Li × 0.99 × 0.98 × r_lithium step
Illustrative model. The purification (0.99) and solvent-extraction bleed (0.98) factors are held at the study’s defaults. The EU rows are Annex XII Part C of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542.
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.
References & further reading
Technical references
- 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.
- Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Topic background · Battery construction, recycling routes and U.S. waste-management context.