A novel mechanical pre-treatment process-chain for the recycling of Li-Ion batteries

Li-Ion batteries are strategic components widely adopted in the e-mobility, electronics and building sectors. Although recycling of Li-Ion batteries has recently received increasing attention, the closed-loop recycling, aiming at supplying high quality materials to the battery manufacturing industry, remains a challenge, due to the inherent complexity in meeting target material specifications. This paper proposes a novel Li-Ion battery mechanical pre-treatment for improved selectivity and pre-concentration of the output streams. Machining processes are employed for battery cell case cutting and size-reduction and separation stages are applied on the isolated active winding. The developed process-chain is validated and benchmarked by experimental analysis.