{
  "node": {
    "id": "term:raffinate",
    "type": "Term",
    "label": "Raffinate",
    "properties": {
      "id": "raffinate",
      "name": "Raffinate",
      "section": "topic-recycling",
      "definition": "The aqueous solution left after solvent extraction has taken out the target metals. In battery recycling it carries the lithium, which is recovered from it last by evaporation and precipitation.",
      "related": [
        "solvent-extraction",
        "mixer-settler",
        "lithium-recovery",
        "bleed-stream"
      ],
      "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/raffinate/",
      "mentions": [
        "recycling",
        "precipitation"
      ]
    }
  },
  "edges": [
    {
      "id": "edge:belongsTo/term:raffinate/topic:topic-recycling",
      "source": "term:raffinate",
      "target": "topic:topic-recycling",
      "type": "belongsTo",
      "properties": {
        "sourceFile": "terms.json"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "edge:relatedTo/term:raffinate/term:solvent-extraction",
      "source": "term:raffinate",
      "target": "term:solvent-extraction",
      "type": "relatedTo",
      "properties": {
        "sourceFile": "terms.json",
        "meaning": "Related context; not a causal claim"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "edge:relatedTo/term:raffinate/term:mixer-settler",
      "source": "term:raffinate",
      "target": "term:mixer-settler",
      "type": "relatedTo",
      "properties": {
        "sourceFile": "terms.json",
        "meaning": "Related context; not a causal claim"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "edge:relatedTo/term:raffinate/term:lithium-recovery",
      "source": "term:raffinate",
      "target": "term:lithium-recovery",
      "type": "relatedTo",
      "properties": {
        "sourceFile": "terms.json",
        "meaning": "Related context; not a causal claim"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "edge:relatedTo/term:raffinate/term:bleed-stream",
      "source": "term:raffinate",
      "target": "term:bleed-stream",
      "type": "relatedTo",
      "properties": {
        "sourceFile": "terms.json",
        "meaning": "Related context; not a causal claim"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "edge:mentions/raffinate/recycling",
      "source": "term:raffinate",
      "target": "term:recycling",
      "type": "mentions",
      "properties": {
        "sourceFile": "terms.json",
        "method": "build_glossary.mention_index + mentions",
        "field": "definition",
        "meaning": "Text mention; not a causal claim"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "edge:mentions/raffinate/precipitation",
      "source": "term:raffinate",
      "target": "term:precipitation",
      "type": "mentions",
      "properties": {
        "sourceFile": "terms.json",
        "method": "build_glossary.mention_index + mentions",
        "field": "definition",
        "meaning": "Text mention; not a causal claim"
      }
    }
  ],
  "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:solvent-extraction",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Solvent extraction",
      "properties": {
        "id": "solvent-extraction",
        "name": "Solvent extraction",
        "abbr": "SX",
        "aka": [
          "liquid–liquid extraction",
          "Cyanex 272",
          "D2EHPA"
        ],
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Separating metals in the leach liquor by contacting it with an organic phase carrying an extractant that picks up one metal at a time, controlled by pH: manganese, then cobalt, then nickel, leaving lithium in the water. It is how recyclers reach battery-grade sulfates.",
        "related": [
          "leaching",
          "precipitation",
          "crystallisation",
          "hydrometallurgy",
          "raffinate",
          "mixer-settler"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/solvent-extraction/",
        "mentions": [
          "cobalt",
          "pregnant-leach-solution",
          "manganese"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:mixer-settler",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Mixer-settler",
      "properties": {
        "id": "mixer-settler",
        "name": "Mixer-settler",
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "The working unit of solvent extraction: a chamber where the aqueous solution and the organic extractant are stirred together, and a settler where they separate again by density. Plants run banks of them in series, one bank per metal, with more for stripping the metal back out of the organic.",
        "related": [
          "solvent-extraction",
          "raffinate",
          "pregnant-leach-solution"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/mixer-settler/",
        "mentions": []
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:lithium-recovery",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Lithium recovery",
      "properties": {
        "id": "lithium-recovery",
        "name": "Lithium recovery",
        "aka": [
          "early lithium extraction",
          "lithium-first recovery"
        ],
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Getting the lithium back, which smelting loses to slag and older hydrometallurgical flowsheets left until last at low yield. Newer routes take it out first — by roasting or carbonating black mass and washing out a lithium salt — before the other metals are leached.",
        "related": [
          "lithium-carbonate",
          "precipitation",
          "collection-target",
          "pyrometallurgy",
          "raffinate"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/lithium-recovery/",
        "mentions": [
          "lithium-salt",
          "black-mass",
          "smelting",
          "slag"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:bleed-stream",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Bleed stream",
      "properties": {
        "id": "bleed-stream",
        "name": "Bleed stream",
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Part of a recirculating process solution removed on purpose so that sodium, sulfate and trace impurities do not build up. Any valuable metal still dissolved in it is lost, so the bleed is a balance between purity and recovery.",
        "related": [
          "raffinate",
          "lithium-recovery",
          "impurity-removal"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/bleed-stream/",
        "mentions": []
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:recycling",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Battery recycling",
      "properties": {
        "id": "recycling",
        "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.",
        "related": [
          "black-mass",
          "hydrometallurgy",
          "pyrometallurgy",
          "direct-recycling",
          "eu-battery-regulation",
          "collection-target"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/recycling/",
        "mentions": [
          "cobalt",
          "production-scrap"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "term:precipitation",
      "type": "Term",
      "label": "Precipitation",
      "properties": {
        "id": "precipitation",
        "name": "Precipitation",
        "aka": [
          "hydroxide precipitation",
          "carbonate precipitation"
        ],
        "section": "topic-recycling",
        "definition": "Recovering a dissolved metal as a solid by adding a reagent that makes it insoluble — nickel and cobalt as hydroxides, lithium as carbonate with sodium carbonate. Co-precipitating nickel, manganese and cobalt together gives a precursor directly.",
        "related": [
          "solvent-extraction",
          "lithium-recovery",
          "precursor",
          "crystallisation",
          "mixed-hydroxide-precipitate"
        ],
        "url": "https://lemonergy.com/learn/glossary/precipitation/",
        "mentions": [
          "cobalt",
          "manganese"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}