Established three years ago, the canadian company Li-Cycle claims that its new two-stage recycling process of lithium-ion batteries allows you to extract 80%-100% material.
The company notes that most other companies specializing in the recycling of li-ion batteries, using processes based on pyrometallurgy, i.e., melting components, which ultimately yields 30% — 40% of extraction of materials.
A two-phase process of the Li-Cycle the first stage involves “mechanical size reduction”, that is, the grinding of the batteries. This process does not require discharge of the batteries, which reduces labor costs and operating expenses.
The second step in refining is the process of hydrometallurgy, “wet chemistry”. From here the crushed metal is extracted valuable components, such as lithium carbonate, lithium, cobalt, copper, aluminum, graphite, iron, if we are talking about iron-phosphate batteries.
To date, Li-Cycle has completed three programmes of research and development / workflows physically verify. Currently, the company operates an integrated demonstration plant and is in the advanced stages of developing a commercial factory.
Technology Li-Cycle suitable for all variants of lithium-ion batteries and allows you to safely remove for re-use materials contained in Li-ion batteries without the generation of waste requiring disposal in landfills, says the company.
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