{
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        "discharging for recycling",
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      "definition": "Removing the stored energy before a battery is opened or shredded: electrically through a load, often recovering the energy; by immersion in a salt solution, which is simple but corrodes terminals and makes wastewater; or by cryogenic or thermal treatment. A shredder fed a charged battery is a fire risk.",
      "related": [
        "dismantling",
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        "thermal-runaway",
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    }
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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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      "id": "term:dismantling",
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        "definition": "Taking a pack apart down to modules or cells to recover the casing, busbars, cables and electronics separately and to send only the cells on. It is still largely manual; robotic disassembly is held back by the variety of designs, glue and potting.",
        "related": [
          "deactivation",
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        "aka": [
          "crushing",
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          "inert shredding"
        ],
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Breaking cells or modules into fragments, under an inert gas, in a liquid or in a vacuum so that the released electrolyte and any remaining charge cannot ignite. Off-gas treatment captures the solvent vapour and the hydrogen fluoride it forms.",
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      "id": "term:pyrolysis",
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          "thermal pre-treatment",
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        ],
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Heating cells or black mass to a few hundred degrees without oxygen to evaporate the electrolyte and decompose the binder and plastics, so active material detaches from the foils. It makes later separation easier, at the cost of energy and off-gas treatment.",
        "related": [
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      "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"
      }
    }
  ]
}