Direct Mechanical Recycling Concept for the Recovery of Black Mass from Battery Electrodes

Ongoing climatic change, coupled with an increased awareness of sustainability and environmental protection, has led to the rapid development of renewable energy and power storage solutions. However, quality requirements and continuous technological development lead to a constant high level of waste in the production process, which is particularly critical in terms of resource efficiency. The scarcity of metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel, which are widely used in LIBs, poses a major challenge to the European industry, in particular for the transformation of mobility and energy production. The industry already has established recycling approaches that break down valuable active materials into their raw materials, but have significant disadvantages in terms of resource consumption and emissions. Direct recycling is a newer, more sustainable recycling approach. It aims to recover the active materials of the battery cell using gentle and function-preserving processes so that they can be fed directly back into the production of LIBs. The key to direct recycling is the residue-free separation of the active materials from the other cell components. ... mehrFollowing on from this, a mechatronic concept is being developed with which the active material of anodes is mechanically removed via brushing from the copper foil while preserving the morphological properties. The concept is then realised and tested in a test rig to demonstrate the functionality and suitability of the recycling concept.