What the study does
Send a returned fleet through a recycling route and follow every kilogram: the black mass, the leach, the salts, the losses. The study counts elements, so a recovered nickel sulfate is nickel until the last step combines it, in the stoichiometry of a named cathode, with everything else that cathode needs. That is where the limiting element and the virgin make-up appear, and where a recycled-content claim becomes a number per element.
It is a mass balance over published process figures. Each step names the paper its default comes from and lets you change it. It never certifies a purity, a plant or a performance.
For an engineer it goes further than the balance. Enter the pack as weighed, its cell bill of materials, other chemistries in the same fleet, and any split fraction of any unit from your own pilot or plant; blank fields keep the cited default, which each field shows. The results then give the products as sold (a kilogram of nickel is 4.48 kg of nickel sulfate hexahydrate), the black-mass grade, figures per kWh, per pack and per tonne, every reagent and by-product at its stoichiometric floor, the feed rate of each unit, energy and CO₂ from cited per-tonne figures, costs for the prices you enter, the impurity budget against battery-grade limits, and the inputs that move the answer most. The page address carries the whole case, saved scenarios sit side by side, and the workbook lists every fraction the run assumed.
What closed loop means
In an open loop a recycler sells recovered metal into the commodity market. In a closed loop the material from a spent product goes back into the same kind of product. For batteries the claim can be made at three levels, and they are worth keeping apart: at the element level recycled nickel, cobalt or lithium salts go into cathode precursor, which is what hydrometallurgical plants deliver and what the EU recycled-content rows count; at the material level the cathode particle itself is repaired and reused, the direct route; at the company level the metal comes out of a maker's own retired packs and back into its own cells, physically or as a material account. The questions to ask of any claim are therefore which elements, at what percentage, from what feedstock, by which route, and whether it is physical or mass-balance accounting. The study above answers the first four for a fleet you define.
The routes
The same fleet, run through all three routes at once with the settings in the form. Each card shows the units in order and how much of each element comes back as product; choose one to load it into the study above.
Mechanical and hydrometallurgical. Packs are discharged and dismantled, cells are shredded under an inert atmosphere or after pyrolysis, and sorting separates a black mass from copper, aluminium and plastics. The black mass is leached, usually in sulfuric acid with hydrogen peroxide as reductant; copper is cemented out, iron and aluminium precipitated, and the nickel, cobalt and manganese separated by solvent extraction into sulfates, or precipitated together as a mixed hydroxide. Lithium stays in the raffinate and is recovered last as carbonate or hydroxide. This is the chain behind most European plants and the industrial practice reviewed by Davis and Demopoulos.
Smelter and refinery. Cells or black mass are smelted to a nickel–cobalt–copper alloy that is then leached and refined. Manganese and aluminium go to the slag. Lithium has three fates: left in the slag, which was the historical case; recovered from a lithium-enriched slag; or volatilised with a chloride flux and recovered from the flue dust, the route Rinne, Lappalainen and Lundström simulate with recoveries above 85%.
Direct regeneration. The cathode particle is kept, cleaned and relithiated. It needs a single sorted chemistry, and the lithium it adds back comes from outside the loop; the study draws that top-up as its own input so the balance still closes.
The arithmetic
Every unit operation is a split: a table of per-species fractions to named outputs that must sum to one. A route is a chain of splits, and the ledger at the end re-adds every product and loss against the feed. The cathode step is stoichiometry: the mass fraction of each element in the named formula sets how much cathode the recovered elements can make, the scarcest of the elements that must come from the loop limits the batch, and the elements allowed to be bought virgin show up as make-up. Recycled content is reported per element because that is how the regulation counts it.
The feed itself is a stated bill of materials per kilowatt-hour, derived from the cathode's specific capacity and voltage for the active material and from published module mass balances for the rest, with cells taken as about 55 percent of a generic EV battery system. Replace it with a teardown before deciding anything on the answer.
Why chains land below the step
A published leach figure of 98 percent is one step. By the time black-mass yield, leach, purification losses, solvent-extraction bleed and crystallisation have each taken a few percent, the cited defaults chain to 87–88 percent nickel and cobalt through the hydrometallurgical route, which is under the 90 percent the EU asks for by the end of 2027. It takes the higher black-mass yields that industrial operators claim to clear that row. That gap is where the regulation bites, and the study shows it rather than tuning past it.
The recovery through a route is the product of what each unit passes on: R = yblack mass × ηleach × (1 − ccake) × rextraction for nickel and cobalt, with the lithium step in place of extraction for lithium. Each factor looks close to one; their product does not.
The largest single factor on the mechanical routes is the black-mass yield, which is why it decides whether the row is met.
LFP is a lithium story
An LFP feed has no nickel or cobalt to pay for the plant. Iron and phosphorus are the cathode, so a hydrometallurgical line keeps them as an iron phosphate product rather than discarding them as impurity, and the loop is limited by lithium: a selective leach that extracts most of the lithium while fixing the iron in the solid is the route the recent process work describes. The study flips its defaults when an olivine cathode is selected, so the make-up list and the product set follow the chemistry.
Where the regulation sits
Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 sets three kinds of target the study reports against, and they fall on different parties. Recycling efficiency (Annex XII Part B, made binding on recyclers by Article 71) is the mass of everything a process recovers as product over the mass of lithium-based batteries it takes in: 65 percent by 31 December 2025 and 70 percent by 31 December 2030. Recovery of materials (Annex XII Part C, also through Article 71) is element by element: 90 percent of cobalt, nickel and copper and 50 percent of lithium by 31 December 2027, rising to 95 and 80 percent by 31 December 2031. Recycled content (Article 8) falls on the battery maker: new EV and SLI batteries, and industrial batteries above 2 kWh, carry at least 16 percent recycled cobalt, 6 percent lithium and 6 percent nickel in their active materials from 18 August 2031, rising to 26, 12 and 15 percent from 18 August 2036, documented from 18 August 2028.
How recycling efficiency and recovery are calculated and verified is set by Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/606, in force since 24 July 2025; recycled content has its own methodology act under Article 8(1). Manufacturing waste counts towards recycled content; by-products reused directly in the production process do not, so a loop built from a maker's own production scrap can meet the content rows years before customer packs return in volume. The Commission reviewed the targets under Article 71(5) in 2026 and kept them; the next review is due by 18 August 2031.
The study's rows are this route's element balance on this feed: a screening estimate, not a recycler's audited efficiency or a battery's declared content.
What the study does not claim
- That recovered salts meet a cathode maker's impurity specification: the engine sends what purification leaves to the bleed, so its salts are ideally pure. The impurity budget is a target for the plant, not a prediction of its assay.
- That cells made from a recycled cathode perform: no electrochemistry is modelled here.
- A plant's reagent, water or energy consumption: reagents are stoichiometric floors (laboratory peroxide dosing runs several times above the leach floor), and energy is a cited per-tonne figure for each class of unit, not a measurement of a plant.
- A price for any stream: none is assumed. Revenue and costs appear only for the prices you enter, and a missing price is listed, never taken as zero.
- Equipment sizes on this page: throughput is tonnes per hour into each unit for the operating hours entered. Vessel volumes, tank counts and solvent-extraction stages are sized in the factory designer, from cited residence times and pulp densities. Its floor area adds up the footprints of the sized units, with tanks drawn as high as they are wide by convention; it is not a building layout.
- Any named plant's figures: every default is a laboratory, pilot or simulation number from the sources below, overridable in the form.
Worked factories
The same engine runs the Battery Recycling designer, where a factory is drawn unit by unit instead of chosen as a route. These worked factories are factory files made with it, each listed with its checksum: open one, change a unit, and the numbers follow. Every case in the study above opens there too, with “Open this case in the factory designer”.
- Spoke: mechanical pre-processing line · sha256 ea3f73f46efa
Discharge, dismantle, shred and separate. The black mass is stored in big bags and sold on to a hydrometallurgical hub. Sized for 10,000 packs of 60 kWh a year (about 5,000 t), a commercial spoke (Gaines et al. 2021). - Hub: black mass to battery-grade salts line · sha256 e521c74ac5e4
Leach, purify, separate the metals by solvent extraction and recover lithium from black mass bought in. Sized for the black mass five of the spoke template make, about 6,600 t a year. Li-Cycle proposed a 25,000 t/yr hub fed by 5,000 t/yr spokes (Gaines et al. 2021); the source does not say whether those tonnes are batteries or black mass. - Closed loop: returned packs to salts for new cathode line · sha256 81984f5bd7c7
Spoke and hub in one plant, wired as the study’s hydrometallurgical route. Sized for 10,000 packs of 60 kWh a year (about 5,000 t), a commercial spoke (Gaines et al. 2021). - Pilot: closed loop, 1,000 packs line · sha256 3253c7d8a8e8
The closed loop at pilot scale: 1,000 packs of 60 kWh a year, about 500 t. - LFP line: lithium-selective recovery line · sha256 03f20521826e
Iron and phosphorus leave as iron phosphate; lithium is the metal recovered. Sized for 10,000 packs of 60 kWh a year (about 5,000 t), a commercial spoke (Gaines et al. 2021). - Smelter and refinery line · sha256 b837dc211222
Smelt to an alloy and refine it; lithium goes to the slag unless the slag is treated. Sized for 10,000 packs of 60 kWh a year (about 5,000 t), a commercial spoke (Gaines et al. 2021). - Direct regeneration line · sha256 86f80e0b8418
Keep the cathode particle, clean and relithiate it. Needs sorted, single-chemistry cells. Sized for 10,000 packs of 60 kWh a year (about 5,000 t), a commercial spoke (Gaines et al. 2021). - Lab: leaching to salts lab · sha256 ee928be92a46
A bench sequence on a black-mass sample: leach, purify, separate, precipitate lithium. - Lab: direct regeneration lab · sha256 1242a53f2f03
Relithiate and anneal a sorted cathode sample.
Glossary
Every machine, stream, input and regulation term the study uses, in plain words. Open a group, then a term. A term with a part on the drawings shows that part, ringed, in its unit; a term with a formula behind it shows the formula as a graph on your run. The beside a term anywhere on the page opens the same explanation, and the Lemonergy Learn glossary is linked where it has an entry.
Routes
3 terms
HydrometallurgyRecovering metals by dissolving them in water-based solutions.picture
The wet-chemistry route: black mass is leached in acid, the solution is purified, and the metals are separated by solvent extraction or precipitation and recovered as salts. It can recover lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese at high yields.
In this study: Route → Mechanical + hydrometallurgy runs Dismantle, Shred & separate, Leach, Purify, Separate metals and Lithium.
PyrometallurgyRecovering metals by melting.picture
The high-temperature route: cells are smelted so the valuable metals form an alloy, which is then refined by hydrometallurgy. It tolerates mixed feed but loses aluminium, manganese and, unless designed otherwise, lithium to the slag.
In this study: Route → Smelter + hydrometallurgy runs Dismantle, Smelt, then the leach and separation of the alloy.
Direct regenerationKeeping the cathode particle and repairing it instead of dissolving it.picture
Direct recycling: the cathode is separated from the black mass, cleaned and relithiated so its crystal structure is reused. It needs a sorted, single-chemistry feed.
In this study: Route → Direct regeneration.
Machines in the plant
20 terms
DismantlingTaking a pack apart down to modules or cells before shredding.picture
Discharging a returned pack and removing what is not cells: the housing, busbars, wiring harness, cooling plates and electronics. These parts are mostly aluminium, steel and copper and go straight to metal recycling.
In this study: The first unit. Structural parts leave as “Parts”; the cells pass the bench and go on to the shredder. The split follows the industrial process chain of the PEM brochure.
Dismantling robotAn industrial arm that unbolts and lifts pack parts.picture
An articulated robot that removes screws, cuts cables and lifts covers and modules. Pack designs vary widely, so most plants still combine robots with manual work.
In this study: Drawn for orientation only; the study does not model dismantling time or labour.
ShredderCuts cells into small pieces so the materials can be separated.picture
A rotary shear or hammer mill that breaks cells into pieces a few millimetres to centimetres across. It is fed through a hopper and runs under inert gas or after a heat treatment, because charged material and solvent vapour can ignite.
In this study: Part of “Shred & separate”. Its output is split into black mass, foils, plastics, fines and volatiles by the screen and cyclone after it.
Inert-gas shreddingShredding under nitrogen so solvent vapour cannot ignite.picture
Shredding in a chamber flooded with nitrogen or carbon dioxide. The electrolyte solvents stay in the material and are later dried off and condensed.
In this study: Chosen with Pre-treatment → Inert. The nitrogen bottles mark it in the plant.
PyrolysisHeating cells without air to burn off binder and electrolyte first.picture
A heat treatment at roughly 400–600 °C without oxygen that decomposes the binder, separator and electrolyte before shredding. It makes the black mass easier to separate and leach, but the organics are lost to off-gas.
In this study: Chosen with Pre-treatment → Pyrolysis; drawn as the small kiln before the shredder. More mass then leaves as volatiles.
Vibrating screenA shaking sieve that separates fine powder from coarse pieces.picture
An inclined screen that vibrates so fine particles fall through the mesh while foil flakes and plastic pieces travel over it. Several screens with different meshes are common.
In this study: Part of “Shred & separate”: the fine fraction becomes black mass, the coarse fractions become foils and plastics.
CycloneA cone that spins dust out of an air stream.picture
A cone in which air swirls fast enough to throw dust to the wall, where it slides down and is collected. It recovers fine black mass from the air used to dry and convey the shredded material.
In this study: Drawn above the screen; its losses are part of the fines.
Stirred leach tankA tank where black mass dissolves in acid while being stirred.picture
A closed, stirred, temperature-controlled reactor. Black mass and acid are mixed, usually with a reductant, and held long enough for the metals to dissolve.
In this study: The two tanks of “Leach”. Their efficiency per element is set under Leach and purification.
Filter pressSqueezes a slurry between plates to separate solids from liquid.picture
A row of plates covered with filter cloth, pressed together hydraulically. The slurry is pumped in; the liquid passes the cloth and the solid stays behind as a cake.
In this study: Used in “Purify” to take off the copper cement and the iron and aluminium cake; on the hydroxide route, also the product.
Cementation tankWhere copper is pulled out of solution onto a less noble metal.picture
A tank in which a more reactive metal powder, often iron, is added to the solution. Copper comes out of solution as metal and the added metal dissolves in its place.
In this study: In “Purify”; the product is the “Cu cem.” drum.
Mixer-settlerOne solvent-extraction stage: mix two liquids, then let them separate.picture
A box with a mixing chamber and a settling chamber. The water-based leach solution is mixed with an organic extractant that takes up one metal; the two liquids then separate by density and flow on.
In this study: The three boxes of “Separate metals”, labelled Mn, Co and Ni in the order the metals are usually taken out.
Precipitation tankRaises the pH so the metals come out together as a solid.picture
A stirred tank in which an alkali is added until nickel, cobalt and manganese precipitate as hydroxides. The slurry is then filtered.
In this study: Drawn when Metal product → Mixed hydroxide precipitate.
CrystalliserConcentrates the solution until the lithium salt forms crystals.picture
A vessel that evaporates water or changes temperature until a dissolved salt exceeds its solubility and crystallises. The crystals are separated and dried.
In this study: In “Lithium”; with the dryer it makes the lithium carbonate or hydroxide.
DryerA rotating drum that dries the salt crystals.picture
A heated drum or belt that removes the remaining moisture from crystals or filter cakes so they can be bagged and sold.
In this study: Drawn beside the crystalliser.
Smelting furnaceMelts cells so the valuable metals collect as an alloy.picture
A refractory-lined furnace running at about 1200–1450 °C with a reductant and fluxes. Nickel, cobalt, copper and iron melt into an alloy at the bottom; aluminium, manganese and most lithium go into the slag on top; carbon and organics burn.
In this study: The unit of the smelter route. Where the lithium goes is set under Smelter and direct routes.
Relithiation furnaceHeats the cathode powder with fresh lithium to repair it.picture
A furnace in which used cathode particles are heated with a lithium salt so the lithium lost during the battery’s life goes back into the crystal.
In this study: The unit of the direct route; the hopper above it is the lithium top-up.
Cathode kilnFires precursor and lithium salt into cathode powder.picture
A long kiln (often a roller-hearth kiln) in which a mixed metal precursor and a lithium salt are heated in ceramic trays to form the layered or olivine cathode material.
In this study: The last bay. It combines the recovered elements in the stoichiometry of the cathode you chose and shows how much can be made.
Virgin make-up siloHolds the bought-in material the loop does not supply.picture
A silo of mined (virgin) raw material, such as lithium carbonate, that tops up whatever the recycled streams lack.
In this study: Drawn when some element must be bought; the dashed line is the virgin make-up.
Belt conveyorCarries solid material from one machine to the next.picture
A rubber belt over rollers. In a recycling plant belts carry packs, modules, shredded material and black mass; enclosed screw or pneumatic conveyors are also common for powders.
In this study: The moving lumps show solid flow; hover to read the mass carried.
Process pipeCarries solutions between the wet-chemistry units.picture
Lined steel or plastic pipework with pumps that carries leach solution and its successors between tanks, filters and extraction stages.
In this study: The moving dots show liquid flow after the leach.
Streams and products
19 terms
Off-gasGas and vapour that leave a unit and go to gas treatment.picture
Solvent vapour, decomposition products of binder and electrolyte, and combustion gases. They are cleaned in a scrubber or thermal oxidiser before release; fluorine compounds from the electrolyte salt need particular care.
In this study: Drawn as roof vents. Mass that leaves here is a loss in the ledger.
Black massThe dark powder of electrode coatings left after shredding and sieving.picture
A mixture of cathode and anode active materials with some binder, carbon black and residual foil. It carries most of the lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese and is traded as an intermediate.
In this study: The main stream from “Shred & separate” to the leach. Its yield of the cathode elements is set under Mechanical pre-treatment.
Copper and aluminium foilThe current-collector foils, sorted out of the shredded cells.picture
Flakes of the copper anode foil and the aluminium cathode foil, separated by density, eddy-current or air classification and sold to metal recyclers.
In this study: The “Cu foil” and “Al foil” skips in front of “Shred & separate”. Some copper and aluminium always stays in the black mass.
Plastics fractionSeparator and casing plastics sorted out of the shredded cells.picture
Polymer pieces from separators, cell pouches and module parts. They are usually used for energy recovery rather than recycled as material.
In this study: The “Plastics” bag in front of “Shred & separate”.
Recovered partsHousings, busbars and other pack parts removed whole.picture
Aluminium and steel housings, copper busbars and cables, and electronics removed during dismantling. They go to established metal recycling.
In this study: The cage in front of “Dismantle”.
FinesFine dust the separation does not capture as product.picture
The dust and mixed particles that end up in filters and residues. In this study they are a loss.
In this study: The drum in front of “Shred & separate”.
Leach solutionThe acid solution carrying the dissolved metals out of the leach.picture
Called pregnant leach solution (PLS) in hydrometallurgy: the liquid that leaves the leach with the metals dissolved in it, before purification.
In this study: The pipe from “Leach” to “Purify” and on to “Separate metals”.
Leach residueWhat does not dissolve: mostly graphite.picture
The solid left after leaching: graphite, carbon black, undissolved oxides and binder. Graphite can be cleaned and reused, but in most plants today it is a residue.
In this study: The “Residue” skip in front of “Leach”; a loss in the ledger.
Copper cementCopper metal recovered from the solution by cementation.picture
Fine copper powder precipitated by cementation. It is sold to a copper refinery.
In this study: The “Cu cem.” drum in front of “Purify”.
Impurity cakeIron and aluminium taken out of the solution as a solid.picture
Raising the pH precipitates iron, aluminium and phosphate as hydroxides or phosphates, which are filtered off. A little nickel, cobalt and lithium is lost with the cake.
In this study: The “Cake” skip in front of “Purify”; a loss.
Iron phosphateOn LFP feeds, the iron and phosphorus kept as a product.picture
With an LFP feed, iron and phosphorus are the cathode framework rather than impurities. They can be recovered together as iron phosphate, a raw material for new LFP.
In this study: Switched with “Keep iron phosphate as a product”; switched on automatically for olivine cathodes.
Metal sulfatesNickel, cobalt and manganese sulfate: battery-grade salts.picture
Crystalline sulfates of nickel, cobalt and manganese produced after solvent extraction. Cathode precursor makers dissolve them again to make the mixed hydroxide precursor.
In this study: The NiSO₄, CoSO₄ and MnSO₄ bags in front of “Separate metals”.
Mixed hydroxide precipitateNickel, cobalt and manganese taken out together as one hydroxide.picture
A single solid of mixed metal hydroxides (MHP). It is simpler to make than separate sulfates but must be refined again before precursor production.
In this study: Chosen with Metal product → Mixed hydroxide precipitate.
RaffinateThe solution left after the metals have been extracted.picture
In solvent extraction, the water-based liquid that remains once the target metals have moved into the organic phase. Lithium stays in it.
In this study: The pipe from “Separate metals” to “Lithium”.
BleedSolution taken out of the circuit to stop impurities building up.picture
A part of a recirculating solution removed on purpose so that sodium, sulfate and trace impurities do not accumulate. The metals still dissolved in it are lost.
In this study: The totes in front of “Separate metals” and “Lithium”; losses in the ledger.
Lithium carbonate or hydroxideThe battery-grade lithium salt the plant sells.picture
Lithium carbonate (Li₂CO₃) is precipitated with sodium carbonate; lithium hydroxide (LiOH·H₂O) is made by conversion. Nickel-rich cathodes are usually made from the hydroxide.
In this study: The bag in front of “Lithium”; its form is set under Products.
AlloyThe nickel–cobalt–copper–iron metal tapped from the smelter.picture
The molten metal phase from smelting. It is granulated and leached to recover the metals separately.
In this study: The stream from “Smelt” to “Leach” on the smelter route.
SlagThe oxide layer from the smelter: aluminium, manganese and often lithium.picture
The molten oxides floating on the alloy. It holds aluminium, manganese, silicon and calcium, and lithium unless the process is designed to recover it.
In this study: The “Slag” skip in front of “Smelt”; a loss unless lithium is leached from it.
Lithium concentrateLithium caught from the slag or flue dust and sent to the lithium step.picture
On the smelter route, lithium recovered from a lithium-rich slag by leaching, or volatilised as chloride and caught in the flue dust, then sent on to lithium recovery.
In this study: The “Li conc.” drum in front of “Smelt”; it is carried to the lithium step, not sold.
Cathode and the closed loop
9 terms · 4 with a graph
Cathode active materialThe powder that stores lithium in the positive electrode.picture
The lithium metal oxide or phosphate (for example NMC, NCA, LFP) coated onto the cathode foil. It carries most of a cell’s material value.
In this study: What the last bay makes from the recovered elements, in the formula of the cathode you choose.
PrecursorThe mixed metal hydroxide that becomes cathode after firing with lithium.picture
Precursor cathode active material (pCAM): a co-precipitated hydroxide of nickel, cobalt and manganese made from metal sulfates, then fired with a lithium salt.
In this study: Not drawn as a unit; the cathode bay stands for precursor making and firing together.
Limiting elementThe element that runs out first and caps how much cathode can be made.graph
Each cathode needs its elements in fixed proportions. Among the elements that must come from the loop, the scarcest one relative to that recipe limits the batch; the others are left over as surplus.
In this study: Shown on the cathode sign and in the key figures.
Virgin make-upMaterial bought new to complete the cathode recipe.graph
Mined raw material added because the recycled streams do not supply enough of an element, or because an element is not recovered at all.
In this study: Set under “May be bought virgin”. Make-up lowers the recycled content of that element.
Chain recoveryThe share of an element that survives every step to the product.graph
The product of the recoveries of all units in a route for one element. A 98 % leach does not mean 98 % recovery: black-mass yield, purification, bleed and crystallisation each take a few percent.
In this study: Shown as “Recovered” in the ledger and on the species cards.
Closed loopMaterial from used batteries going back into new batteries.graph
Recycling in which recovered material returns to the same kind of product. A claim can be made per element, per material (direct regeneration) or per company (its own packs back into its own cells).
In this study: The closed-loop check tests whether a claimed cathode mass could have come from a returned fleet.
Lithium top-upFresh lithium added to restore what the cathode lost in use.picture
Used cathode is short of lithium because some is trapped in the anode film and in side reactions. Relithiation adds it back from a lithium salt bought outside the loop.
In this study: Set as a fraction under Smelter and direct routes; drawn as the hopper over the relithiation furnace.
Reagent floorThe least acid and reductant the chemistry allows.picture
The stoichiometric amount of acid needed to dissolve the metals and of reductant to reduce cobalt and manganese, multiplied by the excess you set. Real plants use more.
In this study: Shown in the key figures and on the leach sign.
Production scrapRejected cells and electrode offcuts from cell factories.
Material scrapped during cell manufacture. It is a large recycling feed today and counts towards recycled content under the EU rules.
In this study: Not a study input; it explains why a loop can close before customer packs return in volume.
EU Battery Regulation
5 terms · 5 with a graph
EU Battery RegulationRegulation (EU) 2023/1542 on batteries and waste batteries.graph
The EU law covering batteries over their whole life: carbon footprint, recycled content, due diligence, the battery passport, collection and recycling.
In this study: The EU panels report three of its targets for this run.
Recycling efficiencyEverything recovered as product over everything a recycler takes in.graph
A recycler’s output of recycled material divided by its input of waste batteries, by mass. Annex XII Part B sets 65 % for lithium-based batteries by 31 December 2025 and 70 % by 31 December 2030; Article 71 makes it binding.
In this study: Here: all product streams over the feed, except the plastics fraction sent to energy recovery, which that methodology does not count. The official calculation follows Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/606.
Recovery of materialsThe share of each metal a recycler gets back.graph
Per element, the mass recovered as product over the mass in the waste batteries. Annex XII Part C sets cobalt, nickel and copper at 90 % and lithium at 50 % by 31 December 2027, and 95 % and 80 % by 31 December 2031.
In this study: Here: product mass of each metal over its feed mass, through the whole route.
Recycled contentThe share of a metal in a new battery that came from recycling.graph
Article 8 requires EV, SLI and larger industrial batteries to contain minimum shares of recovered cobalt, lithium and nickel in their active materials: 16, 6 and 6 % from 18 August 2031, and 26, 12 and 15 % from 18 August 2036.
In this study: Here: per element, the share of the cathode batch that came from the loop rather than virgin make-up.
Methodology actThe delegated regulation that says how the rates are calculated.graph
Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/606, in force since 24 July 2025, sets how recycling efficiency and recovery of materials are calculated and verified. Recycled content has its own act under Article 8(1).
In this study: The study’s rows are a screening balance, not that calculation.
Study inputs
21 terms · 11 with a graph
PacksHow many battery packs come back for recycling.graph
The number of returned packs in the batch you want to send through the route.
In this study: With Energy per pack it sets the feed mass through a stated bill of materials per kilowatt-hour.
Example: 100 packs of 60 kWh is 6 MWh of cells.
Energy per packThe nominal energy of one returned pack, in kWh.graph
The pack’s nameplate energy. It scales every material in the bill of materials.
In this study: Use the energy when new; the study does not model ageing.
Cathode in the cellsThe cathode chemistry of the returned cells.graph
NMC, NCA and NCMA are layered oxides rich in nickel; LFP and LMFP are olivine phosphates without nickel or cobalt; LMO is a manganese spinel.
In this study: It sets which elements are in the feed and the default make-up list.
Cathode loadingKilograms of cathode material per kWh of cells.graph
How much cathode active material the cells hold per unit of energy. Left blank, the study derives it from the cathode’s specific capacity and voltage.
In this study: Enter a teardown figure if you have one; it changes the metal in the feed directly.
Example: NMC 622 at about 175 mAh/g and 3.7 V gives roughly 1.5 kg per kWh.
RouteWhich recycling process the fleet goes through.picture
Mechanical + hydrometallurgy (shred, leach, separate), smelter + hydrometallurgy (smelt, then leach the alloy) or direct regeneration (keep the cathode particle).
In this study: The plant redraws with the units of the route you choose; “The routes” below compares all three.
Cathode to makeThe cathode the recovered elements are made into.picture
The target chemistry for the last bay. It may differ from the returned cathode, for example recycled NMC 622 made into NMC 811.
In this study: Its formula sets the recipe, the limiting element and the make-up.
May be bought virginElements you allow the cathode bay to buy new.graph
Ticked elements can be topped up with virgin material; unticked elements must come entirely from the loop and can limit the batch.
In this study: Defaults: lithium and aluminium for layered oxides; aluminium, iron, phosphorus and manganese for olivines.
Pre-treatmentInert-gas shredding or pyrolysis before shredding.picture
Two ways to make cells safe to shred: keep the electrolyte and shred under nitrogen, or burn off binder and electrolyte first by pyrolysis.
In this study: Changes the volatiles and how much carbon reaches the leach.
Black-mass yieldShare of the cathode elements that ends up in the black mass.graph
Mechanical separation loses some active material to the foil and plastic fractions and to dust. This is the share of nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium that reaches the black mass.
In this study: Default 0.92. With it the hydrometallurgical route lands just under the 2027 EU recovery row for nickel and cobalt; around 0.95 clears it.
LixiviantThe liquid that dissolves the metals in the leach.picture
Usually sulfuric acid; hydrochloric acid and organic acids are alternatives, and water-based leaching is used for some LFP processes.
In this study: Sets the acid in the reagent floor.
ReductantA chemical that helps cobalt and manganese dissolve.picture
Cobalt and manganese in the cathode are at oxidation states that dissolve slowly in acid. A reductant, usually hydrogen peroxide, brings them to the soluble divalent state.
In this study: Hydrogen peroxide or none.
Reagent excessHow much more reagent than the stoichiometric minimum.picture
Leaching runs with excess acid and reductant to reach high efficiency in a practical time. 1.0 is the stoichiometric floor.
In this study: Multiplies the reagent floor shown on the leach sign.
Leach efficiencyShare of each element that dissolves in the leach.graph
The fraction of an element in the feed that goes into solution. Laboratory and plant figures for nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium are typically 95–99 % under good conditions.
In this study: Set separately for Ni/Co/Mn and for Li.
Metal productSeparated sulfates or a mixed hydroxide.picture
Solvent extraction makes separate nickel, cobalt and manganese sulfates; a single precipitation makes a mixed hydroxide (MHP) instead.
In this study: Changes the “Separate metals” bay and its products.
Lithium productLithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide.picture
The form in which lithium is recovered. The study counts lithium, so the choice changes the salt mass, not the lithium.
In this study: Shown on the lithium bag.
Lithium recoveryShare of the lithium in the raffinate that becomes salt.graph
Lithium is recovered last, from a dilute solution, and losses through the bleed and crystallisation are larger than for the other metals.
In this study: Default 0.85, the route-level figure of the Faraday Institution review.
Where the lithium goes (smelter)Left in slag, leached from slag, or volatilised to flue dust.picture
In a smelter lithium oxidises and goes to the slag unless the process is designed to recover it: by leaching a lithium-rich slag, or by adding a chloride flux so lithium chloride evaporates and is caught in the flue dust.
In this study: Only used on the smelter route.
Regeneration yieldShare of the cathode recovered as regenerated cathode.picture
The fraction of cathode material that survives separation, cleaning and relithiation as usable powder.
In this study: Only used on the direct route.
Claimed cathode massA cathode mass someone says was made from returned packs.graph
Enter the mass of cathode in a closed-loop claim. The check then asks whether the returned fleet held enough of the limiting element for it.
In this study: Leave it empty to skip the check.
Returned fleet in the claimThe packs the claim says the material came from.graph
The number, size and cathode of the packs behind the claim. They can differ from the fleet in the study.
In this study: Used only by the closed-loop check.
Chain recovery in the claimThe recovery through the whole route assumed by the claim.graph
Leave blank to use this route’s own chain recovery for the limiting element.
In this study: Higher recovery means fewer packs are needed for the same cathode.
Engineering figures
13 terms
Pack mass and cell shareWhat one returned pack weighs, and how much of that is cells.
The cells are what the chemistry recovers; housings, busbars, cooling plates and electronics around them are pack parts. A weighed pack fixes the split: what is not cells is pack parts. Bus and truck packs carry more structure per kWh than car packs.
In this study: Enter the mass of one pack to replace the class-typical 55 % cell share; the study refuses a pack lighter than its own cells.
Cell bill of materialsKilograms of foil, electrolyte, separator, binder and housing per kWh of cells.
Everything in a cell besides the cathode and the graphite, per kWh. The cathode follows from its loading and the graphite from the anode capacity; these follow from the cell design.
In this study: Blank fields keep the class-typical figures for the chemistry in the cells; a teardown replaces them.
Pack parts splitHow the pack’s non-cell mass divides into aluminium, steel, copper and plastics.
The housing, frame, busbars, harness and cooling plates of a pack, by material. The four shares must add up to one.
In this study: Changes what dismantling recovers as parts.
Mixed fleetPacks of more than one chemistry returned together.
A recycler rarely receives one chemistry. Each chemistry brings its own cathode and cell bill of materials; the streams are added before the plant. Iron phosphate is kept as a product when LFP is in the mix.
In this study: Shares are of the returned energy; the chemistry chosen in the main form takes what the others leave. Direct regeneration refuses a mixed feed.
ThroughputTonnes per hour each unit must take to process the fleet in the hours given.
The fleet divided by the operating hours: what each unit has to handle per hour. A continuous chemical plant runs most hours of the year; the default treats the fleet as one year of returns at 8,000 hours, the operating time of the simulated plants in Rinne et al. 2021 and 2025.
In this study: Change the hours to see the rate for a campaign or a shift pattern.
Energy and CO₂Electricity and heat of each unit, from cited studies, and the CO₂ they and the furnace emit.
Each cited figure is per tonne of what its source measured it on — returned packs, cells, the black mass entering the plant, or the cathode made — and is multiplied by that tonnage in this run. Two data sets are offered: unit by unit (Shen et al. 2023 for dismantling, shredding and direct regeneration; Rinne et al. 2021 for the hydrometallurgical plant; Rinne et al. 2025 for the smelter route and pyrolysis), or one figure per route from Argonne’s EverBatt model (GREET 2019). CO₂ adds the grid factor for electricity, natural gas for heat (IPCC 2006), and the carbon the run itself burns in a furnace or pyrolysis, counted from the graphite and organics by their formulas. Making cathode from the salts is a separate plant and is shown apart (GREET 2018), with the CO₂ that lithium carbonate gives off when it is calcined.
In this study: Enter the grid factor of the country the plant runs in; without one no CO₂ total is given. A unit with no cited figure is named, never counted as zero.
PricesWhat the products sell for and what reagents, energy and processing cost.
Prices move daily and differ by contract, so the study assumes none. Products are priced per tonne of the compound sold, reagents per tonne as bought.
In this study: Revenue and costs appear for the prices entered; a missing price is listed, never taken as zero.
Black-mass gradeThe weight percent of each element in the black mass.
Black mass is bought and sold on its grade: nickel plus cobalt, lithium, and the copper and aluminium that a refinery has to remove. Electrolyte left in after inert shredding dilutes it; a dry basis leaves it out.
In this study: Read from the shredder’s output in this run.
Products as soldA metal leaves the plant as a salt, so it weighs more than the metal in it.
The balance counts each element; the plant sells compounds. One kilogram of nickel is 4.48 kg of nickel sulfate hexahydrate, one kilogram of lithium is 5.32 kg of lithium carbonate. Storage, transport and sales are sized on the compound.
In this study: Both are shown: the element the balance counts, and the compound by its formula.
Reagents and by-productsThe chemicals each unit consumes, and the sodium salt they leave behind.
Acid dissolves the metals; base neutralises the excess acid, precipitates iron and aluminium, and loads the extractant; carbonate precipitates lithium. Every sodium ion added leaves the plant as sodium sulfate (or chloride after a chloride leach), the largest by-product of a hydrometallurgical plant.
In this study: Stoichiometric floors, written per unit with their reaction; a plant uses more.
Impurity budgetHow much of the impurity left after purification each salt may take and stay battery grade.
Purification leaves a little copper, iron and aluminium in solution. A battery-grade salt has a limit for each: cobalt sulfate from HG/T 5918-2021, nickel sulfate from Amanyazova et al. 2026, and manganese sulfate and the lithium salts from the suppliers’ sheets tabulated by Nasser and Petranikova 2021. The budget is the limit times the salt mass, as a share of what is left: the most the extraction scrubbing may let through. A limit the source does not print is not assumed.
In this study: A target for the plant, not a prediction of its assay; the study’s salts are ideally pure.
SensitivityWhich inputs move the answer most.
Each input is moved a few points down and up with everything else held, and the change in the cathode made and in each recovery is recorded. The longest bars are where better data, or a better plant, pays most.
In this study: Ranked for the run in the form.
Scenarios and linksEvery input is in the page address, and saved scenarios compare side by side.
The address carries the whole case, so a link reopens it exactly. Saved scenarios stay in this browser and are listed with their key results next to each other.
In this study: Copy the link to share a case; save one before changing the next.
Sources
- Diekmann, J., Hanisch, C., Froböse, L., Schälicke, G., Loellhoeffel, T., Fölster, A.-S., Kwade, A. Ecological recycling of lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles with focus on mechanical processes. Journal of The Electrochemical Society 164 (2017) A6184–A6191. doi:10.1149/2.0271701jes. Used for the cell share of the pack, the black-mass yield and the copper and aluminium carried into black mass.
- Vieceli, N., Benjamasutin, P., Promphan, R., Hellström, P., Paulsson, M., Petranikova, M. Recycling of lithium-ion batteries: effect of hydrogen peroxide and a dosing method on the leaching of LCO, NMC oxides and industrial black mass. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 11 (2023) 9662–9673. doi:10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c01238. Used for the leach efficiencies and the note on peroxide dosing.
- Davis, K., Demopoulos, G. P. Hydrometallurgical recycling technologies for NMC Li-ion battery cathodes: current industrial practice and new R&D trends. RSC Sustainability (2023). doi:10.1039/d3su00142c. Used for the flowsheet order and the solvent-extraction stage recoveries.
- Rinne, M., Lappalainen, H., Lundström, M. Evaluating the possibilities and limitations of the pyrometallurgical recycling of waste Li-ion batteries using simulation and life cycle assessment. Green Chemistry (2025). doi:10.1039/d4gc05409a. Used for the smelter's alloy recoveries and the flue-dust lithium route.
- Leong, J. Developing a UK lithium-ion battery recycling industry. Faraday Insights 20, Faraday Institution (July 2024). faraday.ac.uk. Used for the route-level recovery brackets and the lithium recovery through a route.
- Nyameaye, G., Moschovi, A. M., Polyzou, E., Mollehuara Canales, R., Herrera Nuñez, N., Yakoumis, I. Scalable hydrometallurgical process for LFP battery recycling with selective lithium extraction and iron stabilization. Processes 14 (2026) 3356. doi:10.3390/pr14203356. Used for the iron-phosphate product on LFP feeds.
- Gaines, L., Dai, Q., Vaughey, J. T., Gillard, S. Direct recycling R&D at the ReCell Center. Recycling 6 (2021) 31. doi:10.3390/recycling6020031. Used for the direct-regeneration defaults and the spoke-and-hub scales.
- Zhang, Y., Mussehl, V., Piao, D. Material and energy flow analysis of hydrometallurgical recycling for lithium-ion battery based on Aspen Plus. Coatings 15 (2025) 990. doi:10.3390/coatings15090990. Used to cross-check the acid stoichiometry.
- PEM RWTH Aachen University, Battery LabFactory Braunschweig, VDMA. Recycling of Lithium-Ion Batteries, 1st edition, Frankfurt am Main (2021), ISBN 978-3-947920-12-9; 2nd edition 2023. vdma-industryguide.com. Used for the order of the industrial process chain and its temperature windows.
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 concerning batteries and waste batteries, OJ L 191, 28.7.2023. Article 8 (recycled content), Article 71 (recycling efficiency and recovery of materials) and Annex XII Parts B and C. eur-lex.europa.eu. Used for every EU row and milestone.
- Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/606 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 with the methodology for calculating and verifying recycling efficiencies and recovery of materials. eur-lex.europa.eu. Used for what counts as recovered in the efficiency and recovery rows.
- Review of the recycling-efficiency and recovery targets under Article 71(5), reported September 2026. chemxplore.com. Used for the statement that the targets were kept.
The closed-loop check was prompted by reading an October 2026 industry article on the subject; its arithmetic is the general stoichiometry above and no figure, example or wording from that article is used. The study opens on generic example fleets.