Electrolyte recovery

Example

Use in Lemonergy

Distinguish recovered material from a qualified product.

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Carbonate solvent

The organic liquids that dissolve the lithium salt: cyclic ethylene carbonate, which forms a stable SEI, blended with linear carbonates such as DMC or EMC to lower viscosity. All are flammable, which is a root of lithium-ion fire risk.

Lithium salt

The dissolved salt that supplies the mobile lithium ions in a liquid electrolyte, almost always lithium hexafluorophosphate, LiPF₆, at about one mole per litre. It reacts with traces of water to form hydrofluoric acid, which is why cells are filled in a dry room.

Pyrolysis

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.

Shredding

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.

References & further reading

Further reading on this topic

These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.

1. Lithium-Ion Battery Recycling

   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

   Topic background · Battery construction, recycling routes and U.S. waste-management context.

2. Recycling lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles

   Gavin Harper et al. · Nature · 2019

   Topic background · Reuse, disassembly and mechanical, hydro-, pyro- and direct recycling routes.