XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3 3287
usually safe and highly effective. However, its application
on a commercial scale can be challenging due to varying
battery sizes and the large quantity of batteries requiring
discharge.
Dismantling
After presorting and discharging, the LIBs need to be dis-
mantled to a defined level from the pack down to the cell
level. Furthermore, various hazard potentials are deacti-
vated thermally, electrically, or cryogenically.
In the context of safe and efficient processing of elec-
tric vehicles’(EV) LIBs, crushing is usually applied as a
first step to open at least the battery cell and liberate the
cell components. However, the cell opening method used
requires a specific pretreatment to overcome the LIB’s haz-
ard potentials.
Dismantling of EOL LIBs is becoming more necessary
albeit a sometimes costly and time consuming activity. It
has been seen that pretreatment is necessary to deliver suit-
ably sized feedstock to the downstream processing stages
where the need for greater surface area with lower impuri-
ties is required. Therefore, dismantling of LIBs from system
to module, cell, or even electrode level generates prod-
ucts made of metals, plastics, and electronic components
that can be fed to established recycling processes thereby
increasing the overall recycling efficiency.
Processing
Comminution and Classification
The objective of this stage is to break up the bonds between
the individual components, i.e., materials, in order to
separate them into defined concentrates. Liberation also
includes size control to influence and improve efficiency
of physical separation technology selection. Where active
materials are separated from the metallic conductor foils,
impurities must be minimized in the corresponding frac-
tion in order to enable the subsequent downstream refining.
A combination of crushing or shredding and size clas-
sification (air and gravity) is intended to either produce
secondary raw materials in the sense of material recycling,
to prepare the feedstock for recycling by metallurgical
processes, or to achieve waste separation, treatment and
disposal.
In addition, cryogenic treatment of the EOL LIBs can
be followed by chemical, and mechanical separation pro-
cesses for electrolyte separation by cryogenically freezing the
electrolytes prior to drying, de-coating of the metallic con-
ductor foils, or shape modification of crushed and enriched
materials (Kim et al., 2021). It is worth noting that elec-
trolyte recovery is a key step in direct recycling while in the
hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processing routes
the electrolyte decomposes (Zheng et al., 2023).
Separation
Mechanical and sensor based sorting by electromagnetic,
electrostatic, density, chemistry, color and granulometric
properties separates liberated components and materials.
Today use is also being made of sensor based sorting which
makes use of a number of types of sensors such as electro-
magnetic, electrostatic, X-Ray, color, infrared, near infrared
and XRF to differentiate between the various subcompo-
nents presented for sorting. Hydrometallurgical processing
typically requires a high purity feedstock, sufficient to allow
for process stability and selectivity (Werner et al., 2020).
METALLURGICAL EXTRACTION.
The final part in the recycling of pretreated EOL LIBs
material is the extraction of valuable metals from the cath-
ode material, followed by refining process steps to produce
suitably pure products for return to primary LIB assembly
facilities. The most industrial methods globally are the con-
ventional pyrometallurgical processing and hydrometallur-
gical processing, which are used separately or combined.
These options are discussed further in the next sections.
The reader is referred to table 1(Pražanová, A, Knap, V &
Stroe, D-I, 2022) which illustrates some of the currently
active recycling operators around the world.
PYROMETALLURGICAL PROCESSING
In industrial pyrometallurgical processing, the mixed feed
of spent LIBs undergoes high temperature treatment via
either smelting options and or roasting options. Carbon in
the form of metallurgical coke, anthracite, biochar or anode
graphite, carbon powder can be used as a reducing reagent
during the process.
For the pyrometallurgical smelting options, the desir-
able metals from the LIBs are reduced into an alloy or a
matte, with the rest of battery components converted into
slag and off-gas with dust particles. One of the advantages of
this approach is that the end-of-life batteries can be directly
fed into the furnace without pretreatment. However, it can-
not separate the various metals and lithium is often lost in
the slag.
The smelting process usually involves preheating,
pyrolysis and smelting. In the preheating zone, the heating
temperature should be lower than 300°C to ensure com-
plete evaporation of the electrolyte without explosion. And
in the pyrolysis zone, the furnace temperature is controlled
above 700°C. The purpose of this is to remove the plastic
from the battery (Chen et al., 2019). The volatiles in the
usually safe and highly effective. However, its application
on a commercial scale can be challenging due to varying
battery sizes and the large quantity of batteries requiring
discharge.
Dismantling
After presorting and discharging, the LIBs need to be dis-
mantled to a defined level from the pack down to the cell
level. Furthermore, various hazard potentials are deacti-
vated thermally, electrically, or cryogenically.
In the context of safe and efficient processing of elec-
tric vehicles’(EV) LIBs, crushing is usually applied as a
first step to open at least the battery cell and liberate the
cell components. However, the cell opening method used
requires a specific pretreatment to overcome the LIB’s haz-
ard potentials.
Dismantling of EOL LIBs is becoming more necessary
albeit a sometimes costly and time consuming activity. It
has been seen that pretreatment is necessary to deliver suit-
ably sized feedstock to the downstream processing stages
where the need for greater surface area with lower impuri-
ties is required. Therefore, dismantling of LIBs from system
to module, cell, or even electrode level generates prod-
ucts made of metals, plastics, and electronic components
that can be fed to established recycling processes thereby
increasing the overall recycling efficiency.
Processing
Comminution and Classification
The objective of this stage is to break up the bonds between
the individual components, i.e., materials, in order to
separate them into defined concentrates. Liberation also
includes size control to influence and improve efficiency
of physical separation technology selection. Where active
materials are separated from the metallic conductor foils,
impurities must be minimized in the corresponding frac-
tion in order to enable the subsequent downstream refining.
A combination of crushing or shredding and size clas-
sification (air and gravity) is intended to either produce
secondary raw materials in the sense of material recycling,
to prepare the feedstock for recycling by metallurgical
processes, or to achieve waste separation, treatment and
disposal.
In addition, cryogenic treatment of the EOL LIBs can
be followed by chemical, and mechanical separation pro-
cesses for electrolyte separation by cryogenically freezing the
electrolytes prior to drying, de-coating of the metallic con-
ductor foils, or shape modification of crushed and enriched
materials (Kim et al., 2021). It is worth noting that elec-
trolyte recovery is a key step in direct recycling while in the
hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical processing routes
the electrolyte decomposes (Zheng et al., 2023).
Separation
Mechanical and sensor based sorting by electromagnetic,
electrostatic, density, chemistry, color and granulometric
properties separates liberated components and materials.
Today use is also being made of sensor based sorting which
makes use of a number of types of sensors such as electro-
magnetic, electrostatic, X-Ray, color, infrared, near infrared
and XRF to differentiate between the various subcompo-
nents presented for sorting. Hydrometallurgical processing
typically requires a high purity feedstock, sufficient to allow
for process stability and selectivity (Werner et al., 2020).
METALLURGICAL EXTRACTION.
The final part in the recycling of pretreated EOL LIBs
material is the extraction of valuable metals from the cath-
ode material, followed by refining process steps to produce
suitably pure products for return to primary LIB assembly
facilities. The most industrial methods globally are the con-
ventional pyrometallurgical processing and hydrometallur-
gical processing, which are used separately or combined.
These options are discussed further in the next sections.
The reader is referred to table 1(Pražanová, A, Knap, V &
Stroe, D-I, 2022) which illustrates some of the currently
active recycling operators around the world.
PYROMETALLURGICAL PROCESSING
In industrial pyrometallurgical processing, the mixed feed
of spent LIBs undergoes high temperature treatment via
either smelting options and or roasting options. Carbon in
the form of metallurgical coke, anthracite, biochar or anode
graphite, carbon powder can be used as a reducing reagent
during the process.
For the pyrometallurgical smelting options, the desir-
able metals from the LIBs are reduced into an alloy or a
matte, with the rest of battery components converted into
slag and off-gas with dust particles. One of the advantages of
this approach is that the end-of-life batteries can be directly
fed into the furnace without pretreatment. However, it can-
not separate the various metals and lithium is often lost in
the slag.
The smelting process usually involves preheating,
pyrolysis and smelting. In the preheating zone, the heating
temperature should be lower than 300°C to ensure com-
plete evaporation of the electrolyte without explosion. And
in the pyrolysis zone, the furnace temperature is controlled
above 700°C. The purpose of this is to remove the plastic
from the battery (Chen et al., 2019). The volatiles in the