{
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      "name": "Black mass",
      "section": "topic-recycling",
      "definition": "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.",
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        "hydrometallurgy",
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        "lede": "What happens to a battery after its first life: reuse, and the recycling routes that recover its materials, step by step.",
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      "label": "Battery recycling",
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        "name": "Battery recycling",
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Recovering lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper and aluminium from end-of-life cells and production scrap. Scrap is today’s main feedstock; vehicle returns will dominate in the 2030s, and regulation now sets minimum recovery rates.",
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          "black-mass",
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        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Recycling by dissolving black mass in acid and separating the metals as salts by precipitation and solvent extraction. It recovers lithium and gives battery-grade products, at the cost of chemical consumption and wastewater.",
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          "pyrometallurgy",
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        "mentions": [
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      "id": "term:pyrometallurgy",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Pyrometallurgy",
      "properties": {
        "id": "pyrometallurgy",
        "name": "Pyrometallurgy",
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "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.",
        "related": [
          "hydrometallurgy",
          "black-mass",
          "recycling",
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        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/pyrometallurgy/",
        "mentions": [
          "graphite",
          "cobalt"
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      }
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      "id": "term:mechanical-pretreatment",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Mechanical pre-treatment",
      "properties": {
        "id": "mechanical-pretreatment",
        "name": "Mechanical pre-treatment",
        "aka": [
          "mechanical processing"
        ],
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "The front end of most recycling plants: shredding cells or modules, drying off the electrolyte and separating the stream into casings, copper and aluminium foil, plastics and black mass. How cleanly this is done sets the purity, and the cost, of everything downstream.",
        "related": [
          "shredding",
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          "aluminium-foil",
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    {
      "id": "term:froth-flotation",
      "type": "Term",
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      "properties": {
        "id": "froth-flotation",
        "name": "Froth flotation",
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Separating graphite from the oxide particles in black mass by making the water-repellent graphite cling to air bubbles that carry it into a froth. It lets graphite be recovered rather than burned, and leaves cleaner metal oxides for leaching.",
        "related": [
          "black-mass",
          "graphite-recycling",
          "hydrometallurgy"
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        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/froth-flotation/",
        "mentions": [
          "graphite",
          "leaching"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:electrode",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Electrode",
      "properties": {
        "id": "electrode",
        "name": "Electrode",
        "section": "topic-components",
        "definition": "A solid conductor where the cell’s reaction happens, in contact with the electrolyte. A lithium-ion cell has a negative electrode and a positive electrode, each a porous coating on a metal foil.",
        "related": [
          "negative-electrode",
          "positive-electrode",
          "porous-electrode",
          "current-collector"
        ],
        "lesson": "fundamentals/cell-anatomy/#components",
        "example": {
          "title": "Two transport paths",
          "text": "Electrons need connected solid paths to the collector; ions need electrolyte paths to reaction sites. More of one constituent displaces others at fixed volume."
        },
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/electrode/",
        "mentions": [
          "electrolyte",
          "coating"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "reference:harper-recycling",
      "type": "Reference",
      "label": "Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles",
      "properties": {
        "title": "Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles",
        "publisher": "Nature",
        "url": "https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1682-5",
        "type": "Review article",
        "scope": "Reuse, disassembly and mechanical, hydro-, pyro- and direct recycling routes.",
        "year": 2019,
        "authors": [
          "Gavin Harper et al."
        ],
        "accessed": "2026-10-27"
      }
    }
  ]
}