Efficient Process for Li-Ion Battery Recycling via Electrohydraulic Fragmentation

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries are crucial for non-emission technologies, like electric vehicles and renewable energy sources. The growing battery market causes supply risks for affected raw materials like cobalt, nickel, natural graphite and, in the future, lithium. On the other hand, the number of end-of-life Li-ion batteries grows significantly and provides an additional source for these critical materials via recycling. In electrohydraulic fragmentation (EHF), Li-ion battery cells are disintegrated at component interfaces, thus separating those components. Battery materials like cathode active material, graphite, electrode foils and housing parts can be extracted for producing new batteries or for further refining in hydrometallurgical processing. Compared to state-of-the-art pyrometallurgical recycling, the EHF is more energy and cost efficient due to the easy processing to a valuable battery material product.