{
  "node": {
    "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",
        "sieving",
        "magnetic-separation",
        "eddy-current-separation",
        "black-mass",
        "hydrometallurgy"
      ],
      "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/mechanical-pretreatment/",
      "mentions": [
        "aluminium-foil",
        "electrolyte",
        "drying"
      ]
    }
  },
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      "id": "edge:4275",
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      "id": "edge:4280",
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      "id": "edge:mentions/mechanical-pretreatment/aluminium-foil",
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    },
    {
      "id": "edge:4284",
      "source": "term:mechanical-pretreatment",
      "target": "reference:harper-recycling",
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        "scope": "direct technical reference"
      }
    }
  ],
  "neighbors": [
    {
      "id": "topic:topic-recycling",
      "type": "Topic",
      "label": "Recycling and end of life",
      "properties": {
        "id": "topic-recycling",
        "name": "Recycling and end of life",
        "lede": "What happens to a battery after its first life: reuse, and the recycling routes that recover its materials, step by step.",
        "context": "Distinguish recovered material from a qualified product.",
        "example": "High mass recovery alone does not establish battery-grade purity or refining energy demand.",
        "lesson_url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/fundamentals/cell-production/",
        "lesson_label": "Open process context"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:shredding",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Shredding",
      "properties": {
        "id": "shredding",
        "name": "Shredding",
        "aka": [
          "crushing",
          "comminution",
          "wet shredding",
          "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.",
        "related": [
          "mechanical-pretreatment",
          "deactivation",
          "electrolyte-recovery",
          "hydrofluoric-acid"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/shredding/",
        "mentions": [
          "electrolyte",
          "off-gas"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:sieving",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Sieving and classification",
      "properties": {
        "id": "sieving",
        "name": "Sieving and classification",
        "aka": [
          "screening",
          "size classification"
        ],
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Splitting shredded material by particle size: the fine fraction is mostly black mass, the coarse fractions mostly foil, casing and separator. Air classifiers do the same by size and density in a gas stream.",
        "related": [
          "mechanical-pretreatment",
          "black-mass",
          "density-separation"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/sieving/",
        "mentions": [
          "separator",
          "particle-size"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:magnetic-separation",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Magnetic separation",
      "properties": {
        "id": "magnetic-separation",
        "name": "Magnetic separation",
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Pulling steel — cylindrical-cell cans, screws, brackets — out of the shredded stream with magnets, usually the first separation after shredding.",
        "related": [
          "mechanical-pretreatment",
          "eddy-current-separation",
          "can"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/magnetic-separation/",
        "mentions": [
          "shredding"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:eddy-current-separation",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Eddy-current separation",
      "properties": {
        "id": "eddy-current-separation",
        "name": "Eddy-current separation",
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Ejecting non-ferrous metals such as aluminium from a moving stream with a rapidly rotating magnetic field, which induces currents in conductive pieces and throws them off the belt. It recovers casing and foil aluminium.",
        "related": [
          "magnetic-separation",
          "mechanical-pretreatment",
          "density-separation"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/eddy-current-separation/",
        "mentions": []
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:black-mass",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Black mass",
      "properties": {
        "id": "black-mass",
        "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.",
        "related": [
          "recycling",
          "hydrometallurgy",
          "pyrometallurgy",
          "mechanical-pretreatment",
          "froth-flotation"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/black-mass/",
        "mentions": [
          "electrode"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:hydrometallurgy",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Hydrometallurgy",
      "properties": {
        "id": "hydrometallurgy",
        "name": "Hydrometallurgy",
        "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.",
        "related": [
          "black-mass",
          "pyrometallurgy",
          "direct-recycling",
          "recycling",
          "leaching",
          "solvent-extraction"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/hydrometallurgy/",
        "mentions": [
          "precipitation"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:aluminium-foil",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Aluminium foil",
      "properties": {
        "id": "aluminium-foil",
        "name": "Aluminium foil",
        "section": "topic-components",
        "definition": "The positive current collector, typically 10–15 µm thick. A thin passive film keeps it stable at the high potential of the positive electrode, where copper would corrode.",
        "related": [
          "current-collector",
          "copper-foil",
          "passivation"
        ],
        "example": {
          "title": "Keep normalization consistent",
          "text": "Active-material capacity can remain unchanged while a heavier foil lowers a finished electrode’s capacity per unit total mass."
        },
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/aluminium-foil/",
        "mentions": [
          "electrode",
          "positive-electrode"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:electrolyte",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Electrolyte",
      "properties": {
        "id": "electrolyte",
        "name": "Electrolyte",
        "section": "topic-electrolytes",
        "definition": "The ion-conducting medium between the electrodes. In a liquid-electrolyte cell it fills the pores of both electrodes and the separator, so it is not a separate structural layer.",
        "related": [
          "lithium-salt",
          "carbonate-solvent",
          "electrolyte-additive",
          "ionic-conductivity",
          "solid-electrolyte",
          "ionic-liquid-electrolyte"
        ],
        "lesson": "fundamentals/cell-architecture/#electrolyte",
        "example": {
          "title": "Ions and electrons",
          "text": "Electrolyte carries ions between electrodes; the external circuit carries electrons. The two paths serve different roles."
        },
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/electrolyte/",
        "mentions": [
          "separator"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:drying",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Drying",
      "properties": {
        "id": "drying",
        "name": "Drying",
        "section": "topic-manufacturing",
        "definition": "Evaporating the solvent from the wet coating in an oven tens of metres long. Drying too fast drives binder to the surface and weakens adhesion to the foil; it is the most energy-hungry step in the plant.",
        "related": [
          "coating",
          "nmp",
          "solvent-recovery",
          "binder-migration",
          "calendering"
        ],
        "lesson": "fundamentals/cell-production/#electrodes",
        "example": {
          "title": "Identify what the measurement proves",
          "text": "Final coating mass alone does not prove uniform binder distribution or acceptable residual moisture."
        },
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/drying/",
        "mentions": [
          "binder"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "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"
      }
    }
  ]
}