Ecological Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries from Electric Vehicles with Focus on Mechanical Processes

TLDR

The growing use of electric drive systems and stationary storage is driving high demand for lithium‑ion battery raw materials, while current pyrometallurgical recycling is energy‑intensive and hazardous, underscoring the need for safer, more efficient processes. The study aims to develop an energy‑efficient, high‑temperature‑free recycling process for lithium‑ion batteries, addressing material shortages. The authors investigated laboratory and pilot‑scale mechanical separation steps—dry crushing, intermediate handling, and product characterization—without high temperatures, monitoring gas release from aged and fresh batteries. A second crushing step raised coating‑material yield and selectivity, achieving a safe, ecological process with a material recycling rate of at least 75%.

Abstract

The increasing usage of electrical drive systems and stationary energy storage worldwide lead to a high demand of raw materials for the production of lithium-ion batteries. To prevent further shortage of these crucial materials, ecological and efficient recycling processes of lithium-ion batteries are needed. Nowadays industrial processes are mostly pyrometallurgical and as such energy and cost intensive. The LithoRec projects, funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), aimed at a realization of a new energy-efficient recycling process, abstaining high temperatures and tracing mechanical process-steps. The conducted mechanical processes were thoroughly investigated by experiments in a laboratory and within technical scale, describing gas release of aged and non-aged lithium-ion batteries during dry crushing, intermediates, and products of the mechanical separation. Conclusively, we found that applying a second crushing step increases the yield of the coating materials, but also enables more selective separation. This work identifies the need for recycling of lithium-ion batteries and its challenges and hazard potential in regards to the applied materials. The outlined results show a safe and ecological recycling process with a material recycling rate of at least 75%.