Pyrolysis

Example

See it in the plant

1. Pyrolyse and shred: 30.38 t of cells are heated without air, which burns off binder, separator and electrolyte, then the knife shafts cut them into pieces.
2. Dry: the shredded material is heated and held under vacuum. 8017 kg leaves as volatiles: solvents, binder and separator decomposition products to gas treatment.
3. Screen: the vibrating screen lets the fine coating powder fall through its mesh. 10.87 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 (0 kg).
5. Catch: the cyclone and filters take the dust out of the air: 1970 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.

Deactivation

Removing the stored energy before a battery is opened or shredded: electrically through a load, often recovering the energy; by immersion in a salt solution, which is simple but corrodes terminals and makes wastewater; or by cryogenic or thermal treatment. A shredder fed a charged battery is a fire risk.

PVDF

The fluoropolymer binder used in most positive electrodes. It dissolves only in solvents such as NMP, which is why positive-electrode slurries are solvent-based and need solvent recovery in the plant.

Pyrometallurgy

Recycling by smelting whole cells or modules in a furnace, which recovers nickel, cobalt and copper as an alloy but loses lithium, aluminium and graphite to the slag. It is robust to mixed feed and is often the first step before a hydrometallurgical finish.

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.