Lithium battery recycling is a big topic. Although it is considered by many to be something that does not yet exist, the truth is that there are already dozens of recycling centers in Europe alone. However, there are a few things that are problematic. Most of them only carry out the first phase, i.e. recycling the packaging, so the result is mainly aluminum and copper, the next output is the so-called black matter, which contains lithium, cobalt, manganese or nickel. However, its recycling is more problematic and was almost never carried out until recently. The black matter is now sent to other recycling centers that are able to process it, i.e. they manage the second phase of battery recycling, but there are significantly fewer of them, it is not exactly an ecological nor a cheap process. However, for the first time, a Li-Ion battery recycling factory is appearing in Europe, which manages both of these processes in one place.
The factory was opened by a car company Mercedes-Benz in Kuppenheim in the south of Germany. Tens of millions of EUR have been invested in it, and the recycling center should be able to handle everything, i.e. disassemble batteries, get aluminum, copper from them, and then, using the hydro-metallurgical process, also get material from anodes and cathodes, i.e. lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt and similar elements. Compared to the traditional pyro-metallurgical process, the hydro-metallurgical one is more gentle thanks to much lower temperatures. These reach 80°C, so less input power is required. The factory should be powered only by green electricity, and it itself has solar panels on the roof of 6800 m2 with a maximum output of 350 kW.
However, the factory in Kuppenheim does not yet have a miraculous recycling capacity. It can process 2,500 tons of material annually, which is around 4,000-5,000 accumulators. But the goal of the project is primarily to gain experience for other factories, which will have a significantly higher capacity.
Source: www.svethardware.cz
